Land row woes for displaced

Manas R Bannerjee

MALDA, Dec. 29: Nearly 300 erosion-hit families who got land under the state government’s rehabilitation package at Goshain More under Malda’s Kaliachak III block, are now a worried lot.Continuous clashes between two groups of people over the ownership of the disputed land have made things difficult for the beleaguered people of the so-called refugee colony at Goshain More.The old owners of the disputed land have allegedly threatened the residents of the colony to either vacate the land or face dire consequences. The Malda district administration has decided to maintain status quo in the area, situated very close to the Farakka Barrage, in order to defuse tension, officials said.The Malda district magistrate, Mr CR Das, convened a meeting on the issue yesterday. He also instructed the two groups of “landowners” to produce valid documents in presence of senior officials to substantiate their claims. The officials of the land and land reforms department were also present at the meeting. “We have decided to maintain status quo on the disputed land. No body would be able to sell or transfer the land. We are trying to collect original old papers from various concerned departments to settle the title of the land. It would take some time because it is very difficult to collect original land records from different places,” the DM, said. Official sources said that before the construction of the Farakka Barrage, the government had acquired land in this area several times, for constructing railway tracks and jetties for steamers and vessels to cross over the Ganges. However, after the completion of the Farakka Barrage project, the land was treated as government land and offered to the landless people. Trouble broke out when original landowners had claimed possession of their land from the present landowners, identified as local farmers.