Beneficiaries unhappy with Dalit Basti Scheme

Beneficiaries unhappy with Dalit Basti Scheme
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Highlights

Women beneficiaries of the Dalit Basti Scheme have threatened to return the barren lands given to them as they serve no purpose. The scheme is envisaged to empower women by allotting them 3 acres of land. Under the scheme, the State government provides irrigation facility to the allotted land besides giving working capital to women beneficiaries to raise crops. 

Adilabad: Women beneficiaries of the Dalit Basti Scheme have threatened to return the barren lands given to them as they serve no purpose. The scheme is envisaged to empower women by allotting them 3 acres of land. Under the scheme, the State government provides irrigation facility to the allotted land besides giving working capital to women beneficiaries to raise crops.

The district administration bought 1,142 acres of land at a cost of Rs 45 crore and distributed it to 1,260 women beneficiaries. It was alleged that large scale irregularities took place in the purchase of land as it was barren and not fit for agriculture. No irrigation facility was provided to the distributed lands. The poor women beneficiaries were not given working capital as promised. The beneficiaries said the land ridden with rocks, mounds, trenches and bushes was not at all suitable for cultivation.

Even if a borewell was sunk in the land by incurring a huge expenditure, there was no guarantee that it yields water, they said.
Sobha, a beneficiary of Khapri village in Jainad mandal who raised soybean crop in the land given to her despite odds, incurred a loss of Rs 13,000 per acre as she did not get her investment back.

The beneficiaries of the Dalit Basti Scheme of Khapperla, Gomutri and other villages in Tamsi mandal also made the same complaints. Some beneficiaries of Edul Savargam village complained to District Collector M Jagan Mohan about the large scale violations in implementation of the scheme.

Speaking to The Hans India, Rajamma, a beneficiary, said: ``The lands distributed under the Dalit Basti Scheme are totally barren. The land is not suitable even to grow wild grass. Despite several representations to the officials concerned, no steps have been taken to supply irrigation water to the lands. After distributing the land, the officials have ignored the implementation of other mandatory provisions of the scheme.’’

It was also alleged that the officials distributed the land to the poor beneficiaries at some places by saying that it would come under the purview of command area of some nearby irrigation project. When questioned about lack of irrigation facility after allotment, the officials threatened to take back the land from beneficiaries.

About 80 per cent of beneficiaries did not get any bank linkage as promised. The large scale anomalies in implementation of the Dalit Basti Scheme defeated its very purpose, said another beneficiary.

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