Identify Bhoodan land, report on its status

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday directed the director of the Bhoodan Yagna Samiti to identify the Bhoodan land and report to the State Government about the status of the land.It has come to the notice of the Government that in some areas of Puri district Bhoodan land is under unauthorised occupation and some of the encroachers have recorded the land in their favour in a fraudulent manner.The meeting also discussed the encroachment of 50 acres of Bhoodan land by Orissa Engineering College (OEC) near Jatni.The Minister directed the Revenue Secretary to review the matter and take necessary action for recovery of the land meant for distribution among the landless people. The issue raised by senior BJD leader Pradip Maharathy was discussed during the budget session last year.Admitting that 50 acres of Bhoodan land was transferred in a fraudulent manner during the Congress government for establishment of a private engineering college, the Minister in his reply had said that the patta (record of rights) in favour of the disputed land has been cancelled.The Government has filed a civil suit in the sub-judge court, Puri.However, the engineering college had got a stay on the civil suit from the Orissa High Court. The minister told the House that the 50 acres of Bhoodan land was transferred to the engineering college in exchange of similar land provided by the institute.Later it was detected that the 50 acres of land given in exchange of the Bhoodan land belongs to the Government. The entire transaction was done in a fraudulent manner as there is no provision for transfer of Bhoodan land.Reviewing the progress of identification of Bhoodan land at a high-level meeting here, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister SN Patro directed the revenue inspectors (RI) to prepare a list of the different kisam of Government land for public display and the same should be hosted in Government website.Transfer of Government land, if any, should be monitored on monthly basis and the same should be intimated to the Revenue Department.He further directed the tehsildars to visit the revenue inspector offices under his jurisdiction twice in a week and review the disposal of mutation cases and the progress of recovery of Government land and land meant for public purposes under encroachment.While making the visit of tehsildar to RI offices mandatory, the Minister asked them to submit a monthly progress report to him and the Secretary of the department without fail.