BJD’s patta distribution, a plan to woo Bhubaneswar’s slum voters: Opposition 

The state units of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Sunday said they have seen through the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)’s plan behind the distribution of land documents among the slum dwellers of Bhubaneswar. 

Both parties alleged that it is the ruling party’s strategy to strengthen its vote bank of slum dwellers. 

“Ineligible beneficiaries are grabbing the lands meant for eligible ones and this is happening in the knowledge of the government. The government officials are also aware of this practice. As the government is hardly showing any interest in it, eligible beneficiaries are suffering,” alleged BJP leader Surath Biswal. 

Similarly, Congress leader Suresh Routray said, “In order to woo the slum voters, the government is distributing land and land documents. There is no guarantee that they would exercise their franchise in favour of the government. If a wave starts blowing, they would go for the Congress.”

While responding to the allegations of the BJP and the Congress, BJD’s Bhubaneswar Central MLA Ananta Narayan Jena said, “The state government and the Chief Minister are with the slum dwellers. They are all happy with the government. All the beneficiaries would get their land documents.”

 The Chief Minister is scheduled to distribute land documents among the landless slum dwellers of Bhubaneswar on Monday. But a kind of resentment is brewing among the slum dwellers. They questioned the authenticity of the prepared beneficiary lists. 

Alleging irregularities, hundreds of slum dwellers on Sunday staged demonstrations in front of the government residences of Mayor Sulochana Das and MLA Ananta Narayan Jena. 

‘We have decided to boycott this farce of land document distribution. We won’t cooperate till we don’t get a clear picture of it,” said Annada, a resident of Sriram Nagar slum. 

Notably, the Chief Minister will distribute land documents among 51,000 slum dwellers in the first phase of the Jaga Mission at the Kalinga Stadium on Monday. Each beneficiary would get 323 square feet of land. They can also take 464 square feet of land. But for this, they have to deposit money as per the benchmark price. 

While the ration card holders will deposit 5 percent of the benchmark price, those who don’t have ration cards would deposit 10 percent.