JAGATSINGHPUR: The state government’s ‘Vasundhara’ scheme which aims at providing land to homesteads people has reportedly failed hundreds of to-be beneficiaries in Jagatsinghpur district. A visually-challenged Siba Prasad Raul of Adhangagarh village in Biridi block is a beneficiary of the scheme. But he has been running from pillar to post to take possession of four decimal land for which the patta (record of rights) was issued 23 years back. Siba has been begging in buses and trains for the last 30 years to eke out a living. He lost his eyesight at the age of five due to an unknown disease.
The patta for the land allotted to him, issued by Jagatsinghpur tehsildar, was handed over to Siba on August 15, 1999 by the then collector of Jagatsinghpur. However, allotment of land was delayed due to the super cyclone. After 19 years, Siba met the commissioner and secretary of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities department in Biridi who directed the local administration to allot Siba land but in vain.
Siba met president of Odisha Association for the Blind Sanyasi Behera who approached the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for resolving the issue. The DLSA directed the tehsildar of Biridi Sahadev Sahu to allot land to Siba on September 19 this year.
Though land was allotted in favour of Siba, it did not end his ordeal as somebody else had constructed a house on his land. Sahu said steps will be taken to resolve the dispute in Siba’s land which was allotted to him in presence of the local sarpanch and revenue inspector. Similar is the plight of Kanhu Charan Das (81) of Mantripatana village in Kujang block who was given the patta for 40 decimal land 15 years back. Das too is yet to get possession of the land.
President of Dalit Bikash Parishad Sankar Das alleged apart from Siba and Das, many landless people from SC and ST communities have not yet received land allotted to them. Nearly 106 SC and ST families in Balikuda, 30 in Goda village of Erasama, 33 from Dharadhar and 16 from Gualipur of Raghunathpur block are yet to get pattas for land under the Vasundhara scheme.