Cooch Behar: Civic body Chairman proposes to offer flats instead of patta

Cooch behar: Within 6 days of the visit of Abhishek Banerjee, the Chairman of Cooch Behar Municipality, Rabindranath Ghosh, visited the Lichutala area of Cooch Behar town and spoke with the residents about their problems.

The Chairman proposed to offer flats to the residents of Lichutala instead of land ownership settlement (Patta). The residents have stated that they will have an internal discussion and revert. Around 59 families live in the Lichutala area of Ward No. 20 under the Cooch Behar Municipality but they do not have any land ownership documents for their property.

They had previously informed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about their land ownership claim.

On April 24, Abhishek Banerjee, the All India General Secretary of Trinamool Congress, visited Cooch Behar for the ‘Jana Sanjog Yatra.’ On that day, after visiting Madanmohan Temple, he visited the Lichutala area and spoke with the residents there. The locals raised the issue of land ownership to Abhishek Banerjee and he assured them that the land ownership papers would be provided immediately.

On Sunday, the Chairman of Cooch Behar Municipality, Rabindranath Ghosh, visited the Lichutala area and proposed to build flats instead of providing land ownership settlement.

The Chairman said: ‘’There had been a long-standing demand for land deeds in the area. The process has already been started with the initiative of the Chief Minister and Abhishek Banerjee. As the land area is only 0.5 acres and there are 59 families, it would not be feasible to give each family only 0.83 decimal lands. Even they will not be able to construct a house that meets the minimum requirements set for Banglar Awas Yojona. Therefore, the government has taken the decision to build flats for them.”

The local residents, including Jhuma Barman, said: “We have informed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee about the land ownership issue. We have informed the Chairman that we need some time to decide on the Chairman’s proposal.”