Hundreds of landless people and green card holders under the banner of the Odisha Bhumihina Praja Samiti led by its president Debashisha Hota held a rally here on Tuesday demanding allotment of pattas to them.
They alleged that Revenue Inspectors (RIs) and Tehsildars are misguiding both the landless and green card holders of the Tehsil. A nine-member delegation led by Hota held a discussion with Bhubaneswar Tehsildar Ashutosh Samal on the demands which include homestead land pattas to both the landless and green card holders of the tehsil.
Samal said the Revenue Department has declared that 556 villages under the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) area as lease-barred. “So, I couldn’t allot any land to any landless or green card holder of the Bhubaneswar Tehsil area.”
Hota said the Government has ordered all Collectors to allot homestead land pattas to the landless after repeated agitations by Odisha Bhumihina Praja Samiti earlier. But till now, not a single landless has been benefitted by the order.
As per Government rules, green card holders should be allotted pattas; but till date, not a single patta has been allotted to them, alleged Hota.
Hota said leaders, Ministers, officers and builders were allotted acres of valuable land worth crores of rupees freely in the tehsil, but the landless and green card holders are still deprived of even getting a few decimals of land. If the Government does not lift the lease bar on the 556 villages coming under the BDA and allot pattas to the landless and green card holders of the Bhubaneswar tehsil, the movement would be intensified, Hota warned.