Bhubaneswar: State cabinet has approved a proposal to broaden the definition of “landless persons“, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced in the assembly on Friday. Under the new proposal, individuals owning less than 1/25th of an acre of homestead land will now be classified as landless and eligible for additional land allocation to meet the threshold. “The amendment aims to ensure adequate housing rights for our most vulnerable citizens,” said CM Majhi during his address to the assembly.
The existing Odisha Prevention of Land Encroachment Act, 1972, previously recognised as landless only those individuals and their joint family members who owned no homestead land.
The law allows landless persons found occupying govt land for residential purposes to be settled with up to 1/25th of an acre. However, the govt maintains strict restrictions on the transfer of such allocated land.TNN