Ex-servicemen get raw deal from government They fight for the country’s sovereignty without caring for their lives. Yet when they need their home state to support them with a patch of land, the ex-servicemen are given a cold shoulder. It is not as if there is no land available for the jawans. It is just that the Odisha Government is sitting on vast tracts of land meant for the ex-defence personnel as their applications pile up. Between 2000 and 2012, only a handful of ex-servicemen have been allotted land though applications of 2,726 others have been certified by the Rajya Sainik Board for sanction of land. This despite the fact that there is at least one lakh acre of land available (at least in revenue records) for the ex-servicemen under “Jawan Sarankhit” category in 51 tehsils. There are 316 tehsils in the State. This was brought to fore by a former Naval personnel Bidyadhar Nayak who has been running from pillar to post for a piece of land. Nayak used RTI to seek information from different sources and finally, when he received information, it indicated that there is at least 1 lakh acre land earmarked for ex-servicemen in 51 tehsils of the State. “The information I received shows that there is about 98,377 acre land reserved for ex-servicemen in 51 tehsils of the State. If information from all 316 tehsils is made available, the volume of land available could be huge,” Nayak said. For example, the reply from Jajpur Collectorate revealed that 2,843.47 acre land is available in the district. Similarly, Rairakhol Tehsildar indicated in his reply that Jawan Sarankhit land available in his revenue area was 7,908 acre. In Hindol, land available under this category was 2,609 acre. Government land is available in four categories - abada jogya anabadi, abada ajogya, rakhita and sarva sadharana. The Jawan Sarankhita land is under the rakhita category. Interestingly, several district administrations tried to dodge Nayak’s queries under RTI. “Some asked me to refer to Bhulekh web solution to get a clear picture. Surfing Bhulekh web solution and getting necessary information is a tough task even for well-educated people as it is confusing. They had no clear information on status of the land reserved for ex-servicemen,” he added. A revenue official said Jawan Sarankhita land may have been available on record but its physical existence is debatable.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 07:30:02 +0000
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