Odisha to Convert over 4,000 Hamlets as Revenue Villages
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government has decided to create more than 4,000 hamlets as revenue villages to provide benefits of developmental schemes and programmes.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal of Revenue and Disaster Management department for streamlining the process of creation of new revenue villages out of hamlets. Revenue and Disaster Management Secretary Bishnupada Sethi asked the district collectors to follow the guidelines approved by the Chief Minister in this regard.
As per the new guidelines, the hamlet to be declared as a new revenue village is to be located at more than half-a-kilometre from the mother revenue village with a population of 250 or more. Similarly, a hamlet to be declared as a new revenue village lying within half-a-kilometre from the mother village should have a population of more than 300. Hamlet separated from the mother village by a natural barrier can be reorganised as a new revenue village even if the population of the hamlet is less than 250.
Sethi asked the district collectors not to insist upon a reservation limit for Gochar and communal land for creation of a new revenue village out of the existing mother village. Residents of the newly carved out village shall have access to existing Gochar and communal land situated in the mother village, he said, clarifying that all communal and Gochar land shall be Common Property Resources (CPR) for both the villages.
Under the existing revenue laws, there is no specific provision for reservation of land up to a particular extent for Gochar and communal purposes in connection with creation of a new revenue village out of a hamlet. The issue of creation of new villages has been raised several times in the Assembly and other forums. Most of the proposals were not being considered in view of shortage of Gochar and communal land.
Certain executive instructions issued long ago for reservation of land in the course of settlement and consolidation operation have been misinterpreted by field officers while considering creation of new revenue village, official sources said.
By not creating new revenue villages, the State was also being deprived of resources which would have been otherwise available under different Government grants and schemes.
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