JAGATSINGHPUR: The Vasundhara scheme, which aims at providing land to homesteadless families on free of premium basis, has failed to fulfil its objective in the district. So far, only 288 homesteadless families have received land under the scheme.
Acute shortage of suitable land and negligence on the part of revenue officials have led to slow progress of the scheme in the district. Though the district administration had identified 674 people in 2017-18, land was provided to 141.
This year, 533 beneficiaries have been identified of which 147 have received their land. Now, the process is on to provide homestead land to 366 families, sources said. Earlier, there was a provision to provide 10 decimal of Government land to the landless people for homestead purpose and later, it was revised to four decimal. The decision to cut down on the size was taken in view of the scarcity of suitable land, sources added.
Meanwhile, resentment is brewing among the people deprived of the benefits. They said hundreds of poor families, including daily wagers and Dalit, are living in a pathetic condition due to lack of house. These families even failed to begin construction work of their homes received under various rural housing schemes due to lack of homestead land. In some cases, the tehsildars concerned have allegedly allotted two or three decimal lands to the beneficiaries instead of four, they alleged.
Tribals of Salijanga village under Naugaon tehsil said instead of four decimal, the Tehsildar has allotted only two-three decimal land to 14 families by violating the directive of the State Government. They have sought the intervention of the Chief Minister, Collector and other higher authorities.
On the other hand, locals of Talapda under Kujang tehsil on July 16 staged demonstration protesting allotment of Government land to a ST family under the scheme as the village lacks grazing land, playground and burial ground. Later, they also assaulted the revenue officials who were measuring the land.
Tehsildar Ramesh Chandra Panda has lodged an FIR against the villagers at Kujang police station over the incident.Deputy Collector (Revenue) Santosh Kumar Sahoo said the district administration has directed all tehsildars to identify genuine beneficiaries under the scheme and allot land soon.
Less land on offer
674 identified in 2017-18141received land
533 identified in 2018-19147 received land