President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the first to express support:

Bim Saviya Act still to see the light of day

By Jaliya WIJEYEKOON

Sri Lanka is an island with a land extent of 25,332 square miles or 65,610 square kilometres. It includes all rivers and road network of the country occupying a substantial percentage of the land extent.

According to available statistics 82 percent of the land of the country is owned by the government or come under State institutions and the balance 18 percent is owned by the private individuals.

Land deed is the only document which gives the boundaries of any property, by means of which a private owner could prove ownership. However, it has been observed, in most cases due to the complexity and complicated nature of these documents legitimate owners of lands face difficulties in proving their ownership and some have been unduly victimized.

From colonial times a number of institutions had been established to administer the State lands but it is doubtful whether they have paid adequate attention to lands owned by private individuals.

The ownership issue of properties have become complicated in some cases and led to numerous social, economic and racial problems.

The situation has worsened gradually and by the year 2001 there were well over 150,000 land cases filed in Courts throughout the country. Solving a land dispute is not a simple legal process where the legitimate owners of the said land or property acquire ownership at the end of the trial. Normally, land cases take a long time to see the end, sometimes even decades.

Generations suffer due to land disputes. Family unity is eroded, neighbours lost, large fortunes squandered and hatred and animosities are fostered in society due to prolonged land cases. There have been occasions where gruesome murders took place due to the long delays in solving land cases. Also there are recorded incidents in history where legitimate land owners committed suicide owing to mental agonies suffered due to the long delays in settling land disputes.

In addition to the complicated document, the land deed a simpler and lighter system of proving ownership of land has been felt for a long time and the issue discussed, argued, and debated by the authorities.

However, there was resistance from professional lawyers as they felt it would be a blow to their lucrative practice.

In 1998 Minister D.M. Jayaratne presented the Act of Bim Saviya in Parliament despite objections from his own colleagues and opposition members who were lawyers.

The only lawyer who supported the Bill was Mahinda Rajapaksa who was then Labour Minister. Although the Bim Saviya was supposed to be good and people-friendly, a number of shortcomings and lapses were observed and no proper mechanism found to implement it fully.

The Sunday Observer contacted the President of the Surveyors' Institute of Sri Lanka, Saliya Wickremasinghe to ascertain the position of the Bim Saviya Act and how it functions at present and whether the general public is benefited by it.

Saliya Wickremasinghe explained the necessity and importance of a simplified document for the owners to prove their ownership to any property or block of land.

He is of the opinion that the Bim Saviya Act introduced to simplify the process of land administration had many shortcomings and needs amendments. Although it had been in existence since 1998, it had not served the purpose.

We have identified the shortcomings of the Act and recommended amendments. There are also some clauses to be removed from the Act which are obsolete and irrelevant.

No proper mechanism has been adopted by the ministry for the smooth functioning of the Bim Saviya concept.Former Land Commissioner and Ex-Secretary to the Land Ministry A.A. Wijethunge submitted a comprehensive report on the implementation of the Bim Saviya concept. It is unfortunate that it has not received any recognition as yet.