Odisha to make strong laws against land grabbing: Minister

Amid chaos over the land scam allegedly involving members of the ruling BJD, Odisha's Revenue Minister Bijayshree Routray today said the state government will soon bring two separate legislations to prevent land grabbing and land encroachment.
"Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already issued instructions to firmly deal with the persons engaged in land grabbing and encroachment of government land," Routray told reporters here.
Stating that draft bills for the purpose have already been prepared, the minister said, "The law department is now examining the provisions in the bills. We will place them for passing in the Assembly."
Indicating on the provisions of the proposed laws, the minister said all steps would be taken to ensure there was no land grabbing or encroachment of government land.

He said though the law would be first enacted in the urban areas like Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, it would also be applicable for rest of the state.
The minister, however, said there would be a humane approach in the proposed legislation. "The landless people who have constructed houses on government land by encroaching on them, will be provided four decimal of land," he said.

Replying a question, Routray said the sub-registers would now be held responsible for fraudulent land registration as it was their duty to verify whether the land was genuine and fit for re-sale.
He also said steps were being taken to ensure that people get their land records within 15 days of transaction.

Stating that the government was contemplating to put restriction on conversion of agricultural land into non-agri purpose, the minister said all land revision cases and mutation cases would be soon settled.