Cultivating government land

Question

Question: During the consolidation of landholdings the government left some roads. What is (the ruling) on ploughing them and so on and obtaining grain? No land revenue or the like is levied on them.

Answer

Land that does not belong to the farmer, and for which he has made no transaction with the owner — neither lease (ijara) nor sharecropping — it is not permissible for him to plough and obtain grain from it. It is the property of the government, so with its permission it is permissible.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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