The government has plans to grant land to more than 2.3 lakh landless people over the next two years, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash has said.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the Minister said that scrutiny of applications received under the ‘Zero Landless Citizen’ Scheme had been completed. Of the 2,94,595 applicants, 2,33,232 were found eligible. More than 42,500 applications were rejected. The highest number of applications was from Thiruvananthapuram district (about 40,000).
Mr. Prakash said the list of eligible persons was being published on the website www.zerolandless.kerala.gov.in and people would verify the details from the website. Only details of about 15,000 applications remained to be entered.
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He said this would be the biggest effort of the government to end landlessness after the land reforms in the fifties. The government would have to acquire about 8,000 acres for providing a minimum of three cents land to the applicants and set up basic infrastructure.
He said that estate workers from Tamil Nadu living in plantations in Kerala would be eligible for allotment of land. Beneficiaries would not be allowed to transfer the land for 25 years.
He said the government was willing to re-examine the law that allowed five per cent of plantation area to be converted for tourism and cultivation of other crops, if necessary. The government was conducting cases regarding excess land and government land in possession of Harrison Malayalam properly. The land allegedly sold by the company was also among the disputed area.
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