The Odisha Krushak Mahasangha (OKM) has urged the State Government to provide legal status to Land Passbooks at the earliest so that students’ caste, residential and income certificates in course of their studies are able to apply and avail them from the tehsil offices easily.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had inaugurated the Land Pass Book scheme in 2006 with an very good objective of proper and easy record of lands. But due to legal status, it has not been accepted by Central Government offices and students have been unable to apply for required certificates through online,” remarked OKM president Bibhudhendra Pratap Das.
Students belonging to various categories like SC, ST, OBG and Genera are spending a lot of money running to respective RI and tehsil offices for applying and availing certificates. If Land Pass Books are accorded legal status, then the work land and corrupation in tehsil offices would be reduced by 50 per cent. Some MLAs had pointed out this in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik a few years back.
Informing that Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty had chaired a meeting on the proposal of giving legal status to the Land Passbook in July this year, Das said the Government has not worked on the proposal as some district Collectors have not responded to the letter sent in this regard by the Revenue Department.
“As of now, about 30,000 applications seeking f caste, residential and income certificates are lying pending at different tehsil offices under 314 blocks across the State. Students are running from RI office to tehsil office to avail certificates despite given bribes between Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. While this situation prevails across the State, poor Adivasi students are suffering a lot,” Das said.
He alleged that the State Government’s much-discussed proposal of issuing caste certificates to students at schools has turned into a farce.
Notably, the State Government had on February 7, 2006 told the State Assembly that students would not run to tehsil offices for availing certificates once Land Passbooks are given legal status.