Bhubaneswar: Odisha won’t have anyone without land or housing after five years, Revenue and Disaster Management (R&DM) Minister Suresh Pujari said here Monday.
Addressing media, Pujari said the state government will provide a ‘complete housing package’ to ensure that the poor and landless have a ‘roof’ within five years. “The state government will provide land to the landless. Even assistance will be provided under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) for the construction of houses. While electricity and water will be provided to the houses, LPG connections will be facilitated under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana,” stated Pujari. The minister said that it is sad to see that despite residing on government land for years in rural areas, the poor were unable to get land pattas. “Landless people residing on government land in rural areas, with annual income up to Rs 1 lakh, will get patta for four decimals of the land.
In the case of urban areas, the process is already on to identify the landless people residing in slums. They will soon get possession certificates,” the R&DM minister said. The R&DM department has been devising ways to ensure genuine beneficiaries get possession certificates from the civic bodies, Pujari pointed out. As per the norms, forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes will get pattas of ‘forest land’.