Poramboke land residents to get 3 cents for free

The government has passed a Government Order (GO) to issue three cents of land to people occupying areas like water bodies, recognised grazing lands and roads on poramboke land. They will be offered land in other parts of the village. The main aim behind the move, sources say, is the government wanting to reclaim lost land and putting it to appropriate use.

The proposal to offer free alternative land for those encroaching upon government-owned poramboke land was first proposed by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam when he presented the 2018-19 budget. Based on the proposal, government held a meeting on July 11 and approved the proposal.

After the meeting, the GO was passed, according to which, process of identification of encroachment of the controversial poramboke lands and allotment of alternative lands to encroachers was entrusted with the Department of Rural Development.

“The Department should find suitable three cents of land for the encroachers, even if it is private land and hand it over for free. Purchase of private land should be done through arbitration,” the GO mandates. The GO also stipulates eligibility criteria for the people to be given the free three cents land. The first criterion is that the person should be landless and have lived for five years in the same place.

“If people have been living in the same place for many number of years, the government should explore options of constructing houses by the Slum Clearance Board in the same place or in an alternative place,” the GO read.

The second criterion is that the person should have an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh. The GO also mandatesthe district administrations to have details of all the encroached land in the Guide Line Register (GLR) and should have it ready in case action needs to be necessitated.

The GO also states that once the free land is given to the beneficiaries, government can also consider to construct houses for the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) or under Green House Scheme of the State government.