Patrapur: It may sound unbelievable but true. Land pattas (record of rights) of a village school, an Anganwadi centre, pond, road and over hundred houses of Antarsingi village under this block in Ganjam district are registered in the name of a person residing in Andhra Pradesh, a report said Wednesday. The 200-year old village houses over 100 Telegu families.
The land pattas of the school, village road and the plots on which residents have built their houses are registered in the name of a native of Masagapur of Vizag while the state government implements various welfare schemes in the village.
However, the villagers have failed to avail the benefits of many of those schemes as they do not have land pattas. As a result, the residents are facing serious problems in various fields. The matter came to the fore after some students in the village under Khambarigaon panchayat visited Patrapur tehsil office to get various certificates.
They were stunned when they learnt that they do not have land pattas of their houses where they have been living..
The villagers conducted an inquiry and found that they do not have anything in their names. They found that the error had been committed during the land settlement works conducted in the village in 1994.
They realized they have been living in the village all these while as outsiders as they do not have anything to claim as their own. The villagers after realizing the wrongdoing convened a meeting and decided to meet the district administration and lodge a complaint.
When contacted, villagers B Jejarao, A Keshavrao, G Narasingulu, M Tateya, B Jamalu, K Kantamma, D Dharmarao, T Laxmi, M Guna, D Dalamma, Arjun Mohanty, G Gouramma and others said they will meet the tehsildar and Collector and make efforts to get the land pattas registered in their names.
Patrapur tehsildar Srinivas Behera confirmed the claim stating that the tehsil office cannot intervene in the matter as the land pattas were registered in the name of the person from Andhra Pradesh during the 1994 settlement works.
He said the settlement office only can explain how such a large tract of land was registered in the name of a single person, that too from a different state.