LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Monday directed officials to devise a time-bound plan to grant legal land ownership rights to families displaced from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) who have been resettled across the state.
The Chief Minister said it is not merely a land transfer, but an opportunity to honour the decades-long struggle of thousands of families who took refuge in India and had awaited their rightful rehabilitation.
Officials said that between 1960 and 1975, the government resettled thousands of displaced families from East Pakistan in the Terai districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, and the western UP districts of Bijnor and Rampur.
They were initially housed in transit camps and given agricultural land, but over 10,000 families have still not received legal ownership of the land.
The legal and administrative hurdles included land being recorded under the Forest Department, incomplete transfer procedures and the lack of physical possession.
In some areas, families from other states have also been resettled but continue to lack legal ownership of the land on which they have been settled.
The official assessment is that in many villages, displaced families have been cultivating land for years and have even constructed permanent homes, despite their names being missing from official land records.
“In contrast, some of the original allottees no longer reside in those areas. Additionally, in certain areas, individuals have taken possession of land without completing the necessary legal formalities, leading to further complications,” said a senior state government official.
He said the CM had instructed that the records be updated immediately. The CM said. “This effort must be viewed through the lens of social justice, humanity, and national responsibility. “ He also directed for the arrangement of alternative plots for families if the original land where they had initially been settled was not available.