UPSC CDS 2 2019 English Paper

Question Numbers: 109-114Directions: In this section, you have few short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. First, read a passage and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and opinion of the author only.Ever since independence, land reforms have been a major instrument of State policy to promote both equity and agricultural investment. Unfortunately, progress on land reforms has been slow, reflecting the resilience of structures of power that gave rise to the problem in the first place.The main instrument for realizing more equitable distribution of land is the land ceiling laws. These laws were enacted by several States during the late 1950s and 1960s, and the early 1970s saw more stringent amendments in the laws to plug loopholes in the earlier laws. But the record of implementation has not been satisfactory. Around 3 million hectares of land has been declared surplus so far, which is hardly 2 percent of net sown area in India. About 30 percent of this land has not yet been distributed as it is caught up in the litigations. Besides, a number of Benami and clandestine transactions have resulted in illegal possession of significant amounts of land above ceiling limits. There are widespread reports of allotment of inferior, unproductive, barren and wasteland to landless household, many of whom have been forced to sell it off, in the absence of resources to make it productive. In many instances, lands allotted to the rural poor under the ceiling laws are not in their possession. In some cases, Pattas were issued to the beneficiaries, but possession of land shown in the Pattas was not given, or corresponding changes were not made in the records of right.