Odisha plans to purchase land from needy tribals, dalits

Suresh Pujari said that it is in the planning stage and to be implemented only after proper consultations with all the stakeholders including the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

Bhubaneswar: To prevent non-tribals and non-dalits from grabbing land of STs and SCs, the Odisha government is planning to directly purchase land from needy people for which a corpus fund will be created, Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari said.

Though there has been no such policy so far, Pujari on Thursday said.

He said that it is in the planning stage and to be implemented only after proper consultations with all the stakeholders including the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The minister said that though there is a ban on non-tribals or non-dalits purchasing land from adivasis and SCs, it is noticed that they acquire land by different means. According to the provisions of the Odisha Land Reforms (OLR) Act, 1960, land belonging to STs and SCs cannot be purchased by non-tribals and non-SCs without the approval of the sub-collector.

The minister said that it is found that the needy tribals and dalits sell their lands to non-tribals for emergencies like health treatment, daughter's marriage or studies of children. However, efforts are being made to provide alternative means to the needy people and not to go for selling their land.

Now that all poor people are getting free of cost health services, this requirement is no more valid. The children or STs and SCs also get financial assistance from the government and the state government will soon launch 'Mukshya Mantri Kanya Vivah Yojana' for the marriage of poor family daughters, the minister said.

The minister said Revenue department officials are asked to examine whether applications for selling land are genuine. "As per our information, only 10-15 per cent are genuine applications while in remaining cases, the applications are filed after being influenced or lured by others. This should be stopped," Pujari said.

"There is an effort to ensure that tribals and dalits retain their land. However, if they still want money for any reason, the government plans to buy and keep the land protected for two-three years. If during that time, they want to buy back the land, they can do so at the same price," Pujari said.

In case the seller is not in a position to take back the land they sold to the government within the grace period, the same will be auctioned among the people in their communities, the minister said.

Earlier in 2023, the then BJD government had approved a plan to amend the law allowing tribals to sell their lands to non-tribals under certain circumstances. However, it could not be acted upon because of the strong protest across the state.