The Hindu : Kerala News : All landless families to get house plots

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Kerala

All landless families to get house plots

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has decided to provide house plots to all landless families in the State, taking the land reforms initiative started in the early 1970s to its logical conclusion, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said on Wednesday.

“We will finish the process in three year’s time [when this government’s term ends], making Kerala the first State in the country to provide land to all,” he said at a press conference here.

This year, the government hopes to provide land to around 10,000 families. The first round of land distribution will be done in all districts during the months of June, July and August. The process will gather momentum over the next two years, synchronising with the recovery of ‘excess land’ from landlords, Mr. Rajendran said.

He said the land reforms initiative was yet to be completed, although more than three decades had passed since the law was enacted. Several landlords still had in their possession land in excess of the 10 acres (four hectares) permitted by law. As many as 2,098 cases were pending disposal at the taluk land boards and courts. These cases involved thousands of hectares of land.

The land boards had becoming virtually inactive with the passing of time, with none bothering much about it. “All the 63 taluk land boards in the State have now been activated. Each will hold at least one sitting a week and finish the cases as fast as possible,” Mr. Rajendran said.

He said this government had given one acre of fertile land to 1,717 tribal families at Aralam in Kannur district alone. All the landless tribal families in the State will get one acre of cultivable land each within the next three years.

For the other landless people, the government will provide three or four cents of land each in urban centres and up to 10 cents of land each in villages, he said. (Roughly 2.5 cents = one are).

Signboards will be put up in all government lands so that the public can alert the revenue officials when encroachers get into their act. Fencing too will be given to plots needing additional protection, he said.

The government also proposes to amend Kerala Land Conservancy Act of 1957 to stipulate stringent punishment for encroachers of public land. The draft of the Bill is ready, the Minister said.

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