West Bengal government's ambitious scheme to provide free land to the landless to build homes has achieved spectacular success in Burdwan district, a top district official has claimed.
Under the scheme "Nija Griha Nijo Bhumi", a total of 23,855 families were provided free land in the district and the remaining around 600 families would be covered by March, 2015, Burdwan District Magistrate Saumitra Mohan told PTI.
"I am confident there will be no landless family left in Burdwan district," Mohan said.
The DM said there were some cases in which people, who had encroached on land, refused to move to government assigned land, but despite the government's efforts the encroached land could not be settled legally in favour of them.
"We have taken care to ensure that all willing landless families are provided with land, varying from four to six cottahs each ... This is a very positive development towards empowerment of the downtrodden," he observed.
The DM said that a detailed field survey was conducted to identify eligible landless/homeless families after which land was allotted in consultation with the beneficiaries.
Giving figures, Mohan said that 49.490 acres of land was distributed among 1,164 families under the programme which was launched in 2011, the year the Trinamool Congress came to power.
In 2012-2013, 198.896 acres of land was distributed among 6,503 families. In 2013-14, some 253.134 acres was distributed among 7,866 families and till February in 2014-15, 377.23 acres was distributed among 8,322 families, Mohan said.
