The announcement was made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here while presiding over the TAC meeting attended by MLAs, MPs and social activists belonging to the community. "My government has decided to provide land to all landless tribals in TSP blocks over the next 5 years covering all 19,016 villages," Patnaik said.
Stating that no tribal family in TSP area would remain landless, the chief minister said 33,090 homesteads less ST families have been allotted with 1465.18 acre of homestead land so far. Of the state's total 314 blocks, 118 blocks have been identified as tribal sub-plan blocks in the state.
"The government has already started working on the project. One land coordinator each for three villages in the TSP areas will be appointed through NGOs for expediting the land distribution process," said ST & SC development secretary Santosh Sarangi.
While the state government read out a list of its activities for uplift of tribal families at the TAC meeting, Congress MLA from Talasara Prafulla Majhi demanded immediate amendment of the ORV Act in order to protect interest of adivasis youths.
"The council pressed to expedite the process of amendment of ORV Act in view of the recent judgment of the High Court and apex court and inclusion of the provision of reservation for contractual employees in the amendment," Sarangi said adding that the members also pressed for filling up of all backlog and shortfall vacancies expeditiously.
