The district revenue authority has received 30,223 applications for land allocation under the Zero Landless Citizens State 2015, an ambitious project of the State government that aims at providing every citizen with land for housing needs by January 1, 2015.
The applications have been received from 118 villages in seven taluks in the district. Kochi taluk with 15 villages accounted for the largest number of applications — 9,745. Kanayannur taluk with 21 villages came a close second with 9,158 applications.
Aluva taluk with 16 villages has 3,780 applicants. Kunnathunadu taluk with 23 villages, the biggest in terms of the number of villages, has received 3,064 applications. Kothamangalam with 12 villages has 1,726 applications, Paravur with 13 villages has 1,450 and Muvattupuzha with 18 villages has 1,300 applications.
The last date for submitting applications has been extended by a month to July 18.
Tahsildars have forwarded about 14,700 applications, along with their verification reports from village officers, to the IT cell set up at the collectorate for compiling the list of beneficiaries.
The information will now be fed into the data bank for drawing up a State-wide list.
Kochi and Kanayannur taluks have so far forwarded more than 3,000 applications each, followed by Aluva (2,901), Kunnathunadu (1,702), Paravur (1,450), Muvattupuzha (1,300) and Kothamangalam (1,254).
Most taluk authorities conduct only random checks in order to speed up forwarding the applications. This leaves a lot of room for incomplete applications getting forwarded.
A draft list of beneficiaries will be published on August 15. A final list will be published after hearing complaints regarding the draft list and a super check at the level of tahsildars to ascertain the eligibility of the beneficiaries.
Taluk authorities have been asked to assess assignable land of various categories like excess land, puramboke, bought-in land (land that remained unclaimed in an auction and hence bought by the government), unused land given for various projects within their limits etc.
V.D. Mohammed Basheer, Deputy Collector (LR), told The Hindu that assignable land could be identified by verifying land records. Taluk authorities have said that a special drive is needed to verify the status of assignable land.
Tahsildars have also said that land available for distribution was limited in their taluks.
