Around 8,000 to 10,000 eligible landless families in Bihar will be provided three decimal residential land (equalling 1,306.8 square feet) in a drive under the Basera-2 project during June 15-21. The land allocation is aimed at providing landless families plots to build their houses, land and revenue department officials said, adding that the drive will occur in all districts of the state.
In Bihar, one kattha of land equals 1,361 square feet, though the measurement varies in some districts.
According to officials, the recipient families would be covered under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) for construction of houses. “Those landless families getting land would be eligible for benefits of PMAY(G). That will help them in constructing houses,” said Jai Singh, secretary, land and revenue department.
The families have been identified under the Basera-2 project after a survey over one and a half years. The survey revealed that there were 132,000 families from economically weaker sections and marginalised communities who had no land of their own to construct houses and subsequently, over the last one year, around 70,000 families have been provided land by the revenue and land reforms department, said officials.
“We have already given land to 70,000 landless families identified in the earlier survey. Out of the remaining landless households, around 35,000 were found ineligible for land for various reasons. Now, we are in the process of giving land to around 8,000 to 10,000 landless families. The rest would also be covered soon,” said Jai Singh, secretary, revenue and land reforms department.
Singh said the drive would begin from June 15 and continue till June 21 during which settlement certificates ( documents of land) would be given to eligible households. “ Once we cover all the eligible landless families, there may be another exercise where we can identify such households which possess no land and cover them under the ongoing scheme to ensure that all landless families have their pucca houses,” the secretary said.
The land and revenue department’s move comes only days after land and revenue minister Dilip Kumar Jaiswal holding a department meeting and instructing officials to distribute land-owning certificates to landless families found eligible for such reward in the survey.
The minister also had instructed officials to carry a survey of such landless families who are settled in gair majarua aam and gair majarua khas land (different categories of government land) for years in absence of having their own land and ensure that they all are given adequate land for permanent settlement.
