Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— (a) "agriculture" includes the raising of crops, grass or garden produce, horticulture, dairy farming, breeding and keeping of live-stock, pisciculture, poultry farming and use of land as pasture or for forest or for any purpose where such use is ancillary to agriculture; (b) "agricultural land" means land held or occupied for agriculture or for purposes connected with agriculture and includes— (i) a house or similar structure standing over such land ancillary to agriculture and (ii) trees, wells and other improvements existing on such land; (c) "Assistant Consolidation Officer" means a person notified as such by the Consolidation Commissioner to exercise the powers and perform the duties of an Assistant Consolidation Officer under this Act and the rules made thereunder; (d) "Board of Revenue" means the Board of Revenue constituted under the Orissa Board of Revenue Act, 1951; (e) "chaka" means a compact parcel of land allotted to a land-owner on consolidation; (f) "consolidation" means amalgamation and redistribution of a parcel or parcels of land comprised in different holdings of a unit for the purpose of rendering such holdings more compact; Explanation-For the purpose of this clause, holding shall not include the followings- (i) lands which are covered by orchards, groves or homesteads by the date of publication of a notification in the official Gazette under sub-section (1) of section 6; (ii) land which, in the opinion of the Director of Consolidation, is subject to severe fluvial action, intensive soil erosion or prolonged water-logging or is otherwise unfit for cultivation; and (iii) such other areas as the Director of Consolidation may declare to be unsuitable for the purpose of consolidation: Provided that no such declaration shall be made on a claim preferred by any land-owner if such claim is preferred after the date of publication of the Provisional consolidation Scheme relating to the area under section 18; (g) "consolidation area" means the area in respect of which a notification under sub-section (1) of section 3 has been issued; (h) "Consolidation Commissioner" means the Consolidation Commissioner notified as such by the State Government to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the Consolidation Commissioner under this Act and the rules made thereunder; (i) "consolidation Committee" means a Committee to be constituted for each unit in the manner for the purposes of this Act which shall consist of at least one representative of the landless persons and of each category of land-owners of the unit and one person from among the members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of the unit if the aforesaid representatives do not include a member of the said Castes and Tribes; (j) "Consolidation Officer" means a person notified as such by the Board of Revenue to exercise the powers and perform the duties of a Consolidation Officer under this Act and the rules made thereunder; (k) "consolidation scheme" means the scheme of consolidation prepared under this Act; (k-1) "co-operative society" means a society registered or deemed to have been registered under the Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1962 and includes a Land Development Bank as defined in that Act; (l) "Director of Consolidation" means the person notified as such by the State Government to exercise the powers and to perform the duties of the Director of Consolidation under this Act and the rules made thereunder and shall include an Additional Director of Consolidation, a Joint Director of Consolidation and a Deputy Director of Consolidation appointed by the State Government to discharge any of the functions of the Director under this Act; (m) "fragment" means a compact parcel of agricultural land held by a land owner by himself or jointly with others comprising an area which is less than :- (i) one acre in the districts of Cuttack, Puri, Balasore and Ganjam and in the Anandpur Subdivision in the district of Keonjhar ; and (ii) two acres in the other areas of the State ; (n) "holding" means a parcel or parcels of land forming the subject-matter of a separate tenancy; (o) "land" means land of whatever description; (p) "land owner" means- (i) a raiyat; (ii) a service tenure holder; (iv) a land holder, and includes a Grama Panchayat, Local Authority or a Co-operative Society which holds land; (q) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (r) "public purpose" includes any purpose in relation to any common need, convenience or benefit of the village; (s) "rectangulation" means the process of dividing the area of a unit into rectangles and parts of rectangles of convenient sizes with a view to regulating the allotment of chakas during consolidation; (t) "rules" means rules made under this Act; (u) "unit" means one or more villages notified as such under sub-section (1) of section 6 for the purpose of framing a single scheme of consolidation in respect thereof; (v) "village" means any tract of land which has been recognised as a village in the revenue records or which the Board of Revenue may, from time to time, declare to be a village or which has been constituted as such under sub-section (4) of section 7; and (w) words and expressions used in this Act but not defined shall have the same meanings as assigned to them in the Orissa Land Reforms Act, 1960: Provided that such of the words and expressions as aforesaid which are not defined in the Orissa Land Reforms Act, 1960 shall have the same meanings as assigned to them in the Orissa Survey and Settlement Act, 1958.