BHUBANESWAR: The state government will digitise and computerise records of Bhoodan land across the state and impose restrictions on its illegal transfer and mutation until the digital records are fully updated.
This was informed by Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari here on Monday after a review meeting on major programmes and citizen-centric services of the department. He directed officials to scan and digitise old Bhoodan land records and link them with the Bhulekh system through the proposed Bhoodan-LRMS portal.
The government will also order a probe into alleged fraud involving Bhoodan land and take steps to evict illegal occupants. Officials were directed to ensure that mutation or recording of Bhoodan land is allowed only in favour of genuinely landless persons, in keeping with Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s original objective behind the land-gift movement.
The meeting reviewed measures to protect and recover land belonging to Lord Jagannath in Odisha and other states. As part of the initial exercise, land records covering 31,906.52 acre in 17 districts have been recorded in the name of Lord Jagannath, including 20,507.36 acre in Khurda.