Jamshedpur: Inaugurating a camp to regularise land leases for slum dwellers here on Tuesday, chief minister Raghubar Das said he never lied to his voters, taking a dig at his rivals for criticising him for some 20 years for delaying ownership rights to illegal urban slum dwellers in Jamshedpur East constituency, which he has represented since 1995.
A bulk of the 4 lakh-plus illegal settlers in 86 slums in the steel city belongs to the chief minister's constituency. Tuesday's camp apart, similar camps will be held at 10 more locations in the city for a week for aspirants to apply for lease renewal with ID proofs, which would be scrutinised.
Speaking to 2,000 people at Gudiya Maidan in Birsanagar, the chief minister said, " Main janta ke samne jhooth nahin bolta. Jo vada karta hoon usey pura jarur karta hoon (I've never lied, I've kept my promise)."
" Yeh jatil vishay tha, par BJP ki sarkar ne ise pura kiya.... (It was a complicated issue (regularising leases to illegal settlers). But the BJP government did it)," Das told the gathering.
Slamming his predecessors (chief ministers) for not doing anything on this issue, he said, "Babulal Marandiji was called to attend a meeting in Agrico grounds soon after becoming CM (in 2000, under the BJP government) and told about the agitation of urban slum dwellers for ownership rights. But he did nothing. Neither did Shibu Soren, Hemant Soren or Madhu Koda who led non-BJP government in the state at one time or the other. They wanted to extract political advantage by delaying solution. It was under BJP government (under Arjun Munda) in 2005 that urban slums were taken out from the Tata Steel lease areas. Finally in 2018 (February 20), the state cabinet drew the framework to grant lease rights to illegal land dwellers."
"The process of lease renewal was reached after studying similar processes in other states. We drafted a very simple and cost-effective lease renewal process for illegal settlers," Das said.
In the cabinet decision, it was notified that an illegal settler can get up to 10 decimal land on lease for 30 years, but on two conditions, to build a house and only if the settler has been living there from before January 1, 1985. The lease settlement will be renewable, but non-transferable. Natural heirs or lessees can stake claim to succession rights.
The chief minister blew his own trumpet, claiming his government took policy decision on several contentious issues. "We clearly defined the domicile policy in the state, solved contentious issues of lease renewal of khasmahal lands, providing lands (12.5 decimal) to landless persons in rural areas and 5 acres for agriculture purpose to landless farmers ever since coming to power in 2014," the chief minister said.
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amit Kumar and SSP Anoop Birtharay also spoke at the event.
