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Long wait for the ‘promised’ land

BERHAMPUR: Fourteen landless families of Khariaguda village in Ganjam district are yet to get the land promised to them although they were provided patta way back in 1988-89.

The district administration had identified these 14 landless families to be distributed land in 1988. They were to be allotted land patches which were ceiling surplus land of the erstwhile jamindar of Surangi as per the records of Chikiti tehsil. In July 1988 the revenue inspector of the area had allotted patta to some families and the rest were provided patta in 1989.

But the landless beneficiaries could not take over the land provided to them. Later revenue department investigation proved that those patches of land were ancestral properties of some persons of Samasingi Sasan village. Moreover the said land was in the Digaphandi tehsil rather than in the Chikiti tehsil which had allotted patta to the beneficiaries. Tension also continued between the persons claiming to be owners of the land and the landless who had been provided patta for it. It also led to legal tussle between the two groups. In 1994 the Berhampur civil court decided that the landless families had no right over the said land as patta for it was provided to them due to some error. The revenue officials had no way but to withdraw the patta they had provided to these families with the promise that they would be provided new land patches in lieu of it.

The landless families deposited back their patta way back in 1994 to the revenue officials. But the revenue department is yet to provide these landless families the land which was ‘promised’.

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