Nitish orders fresh survey to correct irregularities

The Mahadalit Vikas Yojana is the Nitish government’s flagship scheme to provide the poorest of Scheduled Caste families in Bihar with a three-decimal (1,306.8 sq-foot) plot for an Indira Awas Yojana home. The Indian Express has been reporting on corruption and irregularities in the scheme,under which 1.58 lakh of 2.18 lakh identified Mahadalit families have so far been given plots.

Some of the plots were allotted after land bought from poor or illiterate owners was sold to the government at a large premium; some of the land allotted is disputed or Bhoodan land and,in a case in the chief minister’s home district,land that is part of a village pond.

“We will carry out a fresh survey to identify landless Dalits,” Kumar said today. “We have also come to know of several discrepancies in land allotment. We will look at the scheme afresh to ensure that the largest number of landless Dalit families benefit.”

The land and revenue department will take note of allottees’ complaints and correct anomalies in the next survey,the chief minister said.

Kumar also said that stern action had been ordered against officials engaging in corruption in the scheme. After The Indian Express reported — in the first of an ongoing series of reports — that Raniganj circle officer Ramvilas Jha had colluded with middlemen and relatives to buy land cheap from farmers and sell it to the government at the highest permissible rate,the officer was suspended and a vigilance inquiry ordered into the land allotments.

Kumar conceded that it was nearly impossible to put in place an ideal mechanism for land allotments. “But the government has taken serious note of irregularities and the revenue and land reforms departments will ensure as many field visits as possible to ensure transparency,” he said.

Rural development department officials said that they had been instructed to take steps to fill up of low-lying Mahadalit plots and to build approach roads. The Indian Express had reported on the absence of roads that made the plots unliveable.

The Nalanda administration has cancelled the 70 ‘pond’ allotments. Islampur block circle officer Ramesh Prasad said land allotment slips had been taken back from 58 families of Pachlova village. The other 12 families,belonging to Akbarpur village and presently settled on the embankment of the pond,may be allotted land nearby,he said.

Pramod Kumar Singh,an Akbarpur villager who took up the cause of the Mahadalits,said,“For the first time,government officials have come here. We are very happy.”