Thursday, October 20, 2011

Govt formalises modalities for land for landless scheme

GANGTOK, 18 Oct: While the state government has been allotting land to the landless people of Sikkim, the “Sukumbasis”, in the rural areas at 0.25 acres per landless family for a number of years now, the government has only recently formulated a scheme prescribing the method and manner of implementation of the Land Bank Scheme in the state.
Under this scheme, land is provided to the landless for the construction of dwelling houses, cultivation and other allied activities, with a view to raise the income of such Sukumbasis and bring them above the poverty line. The scheme is being implemented by the Land Revenue Department.
The scheme is called the Sikkim Sukumbasi (Landless) Welfare Scheme, 2011 and now the government has formulated eligibility conditions for the aspiring beneficiaries.
These conditions include that there should not be any inheritable landed property in their name, the beneficiary must be head of a BPL family and that s/he must not own any landed property registered in their name. This last condition is relaxable in the case of persons declared by government as displaced by disaster.
The scheme clearly states that the claim for Sukumbasi Scheme is to be preferred as a privilege and not as a matter of right. The rate at which land is to be purchased under the scheme has been fixed at Rs. 6.91 lakh per acre.
Verification and authentication of applications will be done by the president of the gram panchayat units concerned in the last week of every month. In fact, all applications are to be placed before the gram sabha especially convened for the purpose of scrutiny. Rejection of applications is to be recorded with reasons.
The scheme also provides for the setting up of a Purchase Committee at each GPU. Beneficiaries will be allowed to select suitable land for purchase and allotment within the Gram Panchayat Unit or elsewhere at their choice. The allotment will be through a lease agreement between the government and the beneficiary for a period of 99 years.
These formalities completed, the list of beneficiaries will be forwarded to the RMDD for implementation of livelihood Scheme and programmes to the beneficiaries on priority.

 

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