State to give freehold title deeds to 25K residents of refugee colonies by Dec 15

Kolkata: The Bengal government would be completing distribution of 25,000 freehold title deeds among residents of refugee colonies by December 15. At the same time, the initiative to hand over "letter of assurance" of giving the same to about another 1 lakh families in such colonies is all set to begin from November end.

On November 4, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced of giving 1.25 lakh freehold title deeds following the cabinet decision of regularising all refugee colonies. As per the decision all residents of refugee colonies will be getting free hold title deeds.

According to the experts, the move of the state government in giving land rights to all residents of refugee colonies comes crucial ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. Most importantly it gained significance when the top BJP leadership as stated about the Centre's stand of implementing Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at the earliest though the process has got delayed due to the Covid situation.

Since "it is a time consuming affair" with a detailed survey assessing land possessed by individual family, free hold title deeds will be given in phases. Around 25,000 deeds will be distributed in the first phase while the remaining will be provided with "letter of assurance" stating that they will be getting the same in the due course of time.

The decision of regularising all refugee colonies will also be stated in the letter to build their confidence as they had been facing many difficulties without having any valid documents of the land on which they are settled.

A senior officer of the state government said: "The work of distributing 25,000 deeds will be completed by December 25. These deeds will be distributed among the residents of 119 refugee colonies across the state. At the same time the necessary work to give remaining 1 lakh deeds is also going to start at the earliest and maximum by the end of this month. Following direction of the Chief Minister, the state Land and Land Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation department will provide them with "letter of assurance" that will act as a document available with them till they get the deed."

It may be mentioned that free hold title deeds were given to residents of 94 refugee colonies in the last fiscal.