The Odisha government has proposed directly purchasing land from the tribals and Dalits in the scheduled areas of the state — a move that it claims will protect such land from being grabbed by influential people.
Odisha Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari, who made the announcement, said the state government had constituted a committee to suggest measures for this. The revenue secretary will head the committee, which will have representatives from other departments as well as experts, he said.
Pujari told reporters that according to the provisions of the Odisha Land Reforms (OLR) Act, land that belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) and the Scheduled Tribe (ST) cannot be purchased by non-tribals and non-SCs without the approval of the sub-collector.
Meanwhile, people categorised as SC and ST can sell their land to non-tribals under certain conditions – including a daughter’s marriage, healthcare and their children’s higher education.
“It has been noticed in many cases that the influential individuals are trying to grab lands of tribals and SC people by luring and threatening them. The sub-collectors’ offices across Odisha have been receiving applications seeking approval to sell the lands to non-tribals and non-SCs under OLR Act,” said the minister.
Pujari said instructions have been issued to all collectors to examine whether these applications are genuine. “According to our report, only 10-15 per cent are genuine applications while in remaining cases, the applications are filed after being influenced or lured by others. We are trying to stop it,” the minister said.
To implement the plan, the state government has proposed a corpus so that the tribals and Dalits who want to mortgage or sell their land due to financial constraints can do so directly to the government.
“The government can protect the land for certain years and can also return the land, if he/she wants to reclaim the land by repaying the amount,” he said.
While the government has yet to draw up a plan on how to implement this, sources in the revenue department said the government will hold consultations with Dalit and tribal outfits and political parties.
“To finalise the Standard Operating Procedure to implement the proposal, we will examine its legal complexities, whether we need to amend the laws that prevent alienation of tribal land in scheduled areas, if any other states have adopted such practices. We will also take the opinion of the law department about the feasibility of the proposal,” said a revenue department official.
In November 2023, the previous Biju government under Chief Minister had approved a plan to amend the law allowing the tribals to sell their lands to the non-tribals under certain circumstances. However, the plan was .
