Patta lands offered to a bunch of marginal people by the state have illegally been recorded in favour of solvent people allegedly in connivance with some the land & land revenue officials and officials with the land registration office in Durgapur.

The corruption charges against the L&LR officials here have surfaced at a time when chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself has initiated a move to break the coterie of the corrupt L&LR officials and 456 such officials from across Bengal have been transferred a couple of days ago. The officials have been asked to vacate their present locations by today. Many such officials, according to the government, have been brought under scanner.

Landless people like Sachin Nath Majhi, Ganesh Majhi, Dukhiram Prananik were offered free Patta land by the then LF government in 1981-82, under provisions of the Land Reforms Act, 1955 to help sustenance of the marginal families as part of state’s much ambitious drive for land reforms. Individual beneficiaries were provided 24 to 32 decimals of land for use as both – cultivation and homestead property.

Sachin Nath was provided 32 decimals of Patta land (Plot No: 1123, J L No: 88) at Prayagpur village within the Trilokchandrapur panchayat close to Panagarh town. Sachin Nath used to cultivate the land. Ganesh was offered 24 decimals at the neighbouring plot of Sachin Nath. Dukhiram was given 24 decimals (Plot No: 1267) at the same Prayagpur village. All feel ‘looted’ by the rich with the help of some ‘corrupt’ officials.

Now, in years, one Adhir Kumar Mondal, a solvent farmer of the locality and his family members have suddenly become owner of the Patta lands allotted to the marginal families. Some lands are recorded in Adhir’s name and some in favour of his son Koumudiranjan, surprisingly. Dharmadasi, widow of Dukhiram alleged: “He’s now asking me to vacate on the plea that he’s purchased the land. I don’t know where I would move. I am also surprised – who sold my land and how?”

Sachin Nath described his pain saying: “His men came to my house the other day and tried to prevent my access to my cultivation.”

Patta is a type of land deed issued by the government and granted mainly to a landless individual or any organization with a land revenue exemption. These land deeds are part of land reforms in India after the colonial period. In West Bengal, a Patta land, in most of the cases is non – transferable or non – saleable property.

The troubled families have recently complained about their plight to the sub-divisional land revenue authority. The BDO, Kanksa, Parna Dey said: “I’ve recently been informed about this and have asked my officials to investigate the matter properly.”