Five Dalit men have been running from pillar to post to get possession of their land, thanks to administration's laxity. Even an order of the Orissa High Court was not executed.
Protesting the event, the Dalit Bikash Parishad has petitioned Sub-Collector Jagatsinghpur seeking to implement the High Court order for justice to the Dalit people.
According to sources, in 1999 the Odisha Government had allotted 4 decimal of land each to 5 Dalit people who had been recognized as landless citizens in Karatutha village under Kujang block.
The victims were given original land Patta but the plot demarcation process was delayed by Kujang tehsil. As a result, the victims were yet to identify and take possession of their plots of land.
One victim Yagendra Sethy informed that he had been allotted an IAY house as he had furnished his land Patta, but the block officials asked him to show the plot location where the house would be built. As he failed to identify the plot, he was deprived of the benefit.
"Many times we have approached the Kujang Tehsildar to get our land demarcated but our appeal was overlooked," Sethy alleged.
After being harassed by the civil administration, the victims had filed a writ petition before the High Court in the year 2018 stating their difficulty for which the court swung into action and on February 5 had directed the Tehsildar, Kujang, to depute an Amin for demarcation of the victims' land and complete the process within four months.
Soon after getting court order, the victims had approached the Tehsildar, Kujang, but till date no action had been taken, said another victim Birabar Sethy.
Meanwhile, president, Dalit Bikash Parishad, Shankar Das, brought the case before the Sub-Collector, Jagatsinghpur, requesting him to carry out the HC order and deliver justice to the poor Dalit persons a week ago and acting on it, the Sub-Collector has instructed Tehsildar, Kujang regarding compliance of the HC order and conduct land demarcation work of the victims soon.