The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : ‘Anomalies in fixing land value being rectified'

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Tuesday, Jun 21, 2011
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‘Anomalies in fixing land value being rectified'

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and Registration T.M. Jacob said here on Monday that the State government would immediately rectify anomalies in fixing fair value of land.

Mr. Jacob said a large number of complaints of anomalies were pending with the Registration Department. The United Democratic Front government was bound to address the issue, he said.

The Minister was speaking at a reception accorded to him by the Ernakulam District unit of the Kerala Congress (Jacob) and the Youth Front (Jacob) in the city. The reception was organised as part of the 47th birth anniversary of the Youth Front (Jacob).

Ration rice

The Minister reiterated the UDF government stand that Below Poverty Line families would get rice at Rs.1 a kg from Onam.

However, there were a lot of anomalies in identifying the Above Poverty Line families.

All that an APL beneficiary had to do now to claim rice at Rs.2 a kg was to file a declaration that his or her family met the criteria on annual income, extent of land holding and plinth area of the dwelling unit.

This had led to a lot of malpractices with a large number of families claiming the benefit by filing false statements. Right now, there was no system for verifying the declarations, Mr. Jacob said.

The BPL families would get 25 kg of rice a month at Re.1 a kg while the APL families would get the same at the rate of Rs.2 a kg.

Mr. Jacob said the burden on the State government would go up to around Rs.3,800 crore a year on account of the ration subsidy.

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