land fraud: S'garh tribals meet DM for redress

A piece of land recorded in the names of a few poor tribals in Sundargarh district was allegedly sold without their knowledge. The poor tribals met the Sundargarh Collector recently and lodged a complaint for redress.Sources said Sudhiram Kuanr and Chamar Sae of Junani village under lepripada tehsil had sold their land which was in khata no.1/2 to Bhaya Oram, Sisalia Oram and Sukru Oram of Bhunani village in 1988. 

After getting the sale deed and purchasing the land, Bhaya, Sisalia, and Sukru had started cultivating the land and had been paying the tax to the Government. In 2011, they had gone to pay the tax to the revenue office when they were shocked to find that the land had been sold off and revenue official refusing to receive their tax. 

The revenue inspector had told that the land had been transferred to the name of one Suraj Patel and Santosh Patel of Bartankela village. Sources said in 2010, deceased  Sudhiram Kuanr's son  had sold 23.15 acres of land to Suraj Patel. The poor tribals had raised objection against this with the lepripada Tehsildar. They asked when the sale deed of the land was available with them, how it was sold again without their knowledge. When they did not get any satisfactory reply, they met Sundargarh Collector Bhupinder Singh Punia and lodged a complaint.

When asked, lepripada Tehsildar RN Tirpathy said, "I was not in the Tehsil during the time the sale happened. However, I will look into the matter on a priority basis."