New Delhi: Despite being cleared by the state cabinet on September 8, the Jharkhand Land Mutation Bill 2020 was not among those tabled in the assembly for discussion on Friday. According to media reports, the Bill was held back after it came under criticism from within and outside the state government. “The Bill will be introduced only after deliberation on all points included,” chief minister Hemant Soren informed media persons.The state government says the Bill is aimed to make the land registration process more transparent. “To provide for regulating the process of mutation of land and making it concomitant with the needs of present time,” reads the preamble of the proposed legislation. However, critics believe that this might become another tool to grab land, especially of Adivasis.On Monday, MLAs of the principal opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), staged a protest against the Bill and other issues outside the state assembly. “The introduction of this Bill will encourage people to rob land. We oppose this Bill and demand the cabinet to take the land mutation Bill back,” a protesting MLA told the news agency ANI.Notably, not just the opposition but Congress MLA Bandhu Tirkey has also opposed the Bill. “Hemant Soren government had come to power by safeguarding tribals and poor land holders from land sharks. But this bill is completely opposite to the coalition government’s electoral stand,” the MLA, a prominent Adivasi leader told the Times of India. He had threatened to tear up the Bill if it was presented in the assembly. Vinod Singh, an MLA belonging to the Communist Party of India (ML) has also opposed it.According to tribal activist and leader of Adivaasi Moolvaasi Astitva Raksha Manch, Dayamani Barla, the proposed Bill is a reincarnation of the Jharkhand Revenue Protection Bill, which was brought in 2018 by the then BJP-led government. “We were opposed to the earlier Bill and also this one, as it will lead to further displacement of Adivasis and Mulnivasis of the state,” Barla told The Wire. “I am glad that realising the concerns raised by many of us, the Soren government has decided to hold it back,” she added.Terming the Bill ‘dangerous’, Barla said, if it is passed, it can be used to grab the land of Adivasis and displace them without facing any consequence. Shadab Ansari, a lawyer of the Jharkhand high court, believes that the Bill has some good as well as disastrous provisions. “Section 22 of the bill, which gives absolute impunity to the officers can have disastrous consequences,” Ansari told The Wire. “This provision will increase corruption, as the concerned officer would get absolute protection from civil, criminal as well as departmental actions,” he added.A sub-section of section 22 of the proposed law states:“Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force and subject to sub-section (ii) no Court shall entertain or continue any civil or criminal proceedings against any person who is or was a Revenue Authority, for any act, thing or deed committed, or any word spoken by him when, or in the course of acting or performing any act in discharge of his official duties or functions.”Barla and others also expressed their concerns about section 22 of the Bill. Prem Chand Murmu, president of the Adivasi Budhijivi Manch, said the legislation can alter the safeguards provided to Adivasis under Chhota Nagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act, Forest Rights Act (FRA) and PESA. “The Bill is not acceptable to us at all and should be scrapped,” Murmu told The Wire. He also claimed that the legislation can be used to further marginalise the tribal communities and can have an adverse socio-economic and cultural impact on them.Referring to the displacement due to different projects such as Tenughat Dam, Bokaro Steel Plant, Tata Industries and Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), he said a large number of people are yet to be compensated and a Bill like this will render lakhs of Adivasis in the state homeless. “We have written to the governor as well as the chief minister and are hopeful that it not pass at any cost,” said Murmu. “If needed, we will once again take to the streets as we did when the earlier government tried to bring amendments to the CNT and SPT Acts and the domicile policy,” he added.In November 2016, the Raghubar Das led BJP government passed two separate amendments to the CNT and the SPT ACTS by voice vote in the assembly without proper discussion and despite protests by the opposition. After the amendments, the government had become empowered to acquire agricultural land for non-agricultural and commercial purposes, something that was prohibited under the previous provisions of the acts. However, in June 2017, Governor Droupadi Murmu did not approve them. Eventually, the government withdrew the amendments in August 2017.The Jharkhand Land Mutation Bill has a provision for time bound online mutation facility to the citizens. And if the concerned officer does not meet the time limit, he has to provide reasons for the same. Another provision of the Bill provides legal sanctity to the online documents and if the concerned officer could not provide services within the prescribed time period, action can be taken against him. These provisions are seen as positive steps.However, Barla and Murmu believe that all this will only benefit corporates and land mafias as after digitalisation and everything going online, it will become very easy for the government, corporates and others interested in cheap land to identify and grab them. When asked about her stand on digitalisation of land and revenue process, Barla said, “I am not against digitalisation per se but we need to understand that it won’t be accessible to the majority of the communities given their socio-educational background.”She alleged that due to the process of digitalisation, land records of Adivasis in different districts of the state have been already duped. “With legal sanctity to it the cases of land-related frauds are likely to increase,” said Barla. “Coupled with provisions like section 22, this will lead to dispossession and displacement of Adivasi communities at a very large scale,” she asserted. According to her, more than 80 lakh people have been displaced from their forests and land due to development activities in the state since independence.After the Bill was cleared by the cabinet and its opposition started, the state’s revenue, registration and land reforms secretary K.K. Soan clarified that “the government has no intention to give immunity to any revenue official who does something with bad intention.” According to a Telegraph report, Soan said, “Though section 22 of the Bill said about certain protection given to revenue officials, it also has a sub-section that has provision for initiating suitable action against erring officials with prior approval from competent authorities of both state and central governments.”But Tirkey was unconvinced. “Does the secretary have any parameter for measuring bad intentions?” he asked.