Bhubaneswar: Scarcity of homestead land has forced the state government to tweak its Vasundhara scheme and lower the quantum of land initially promised to the beneficiaries.

Rescinding its earlier decision to give 10 decimal of homestead land to the landless poor, the government has now decided to give four decimal of land. It has also decided to simplify the procedure to ensure that more people got the benefit of the scheme without facing any hurdles.

According to the policy enunciated in 2008, a person without a homestead would have got 10 decimals of government land in rural areas. However, to get the land the income of the beneficiary should not be more than Rs 40,000.

However, it was found that a large section of the populace could not avail of the scheme as their income crossed Rs 40,000 but was less than Rs 70,000.

A senior official of the revenue department said: "Keeping these things in mind, the state government has decided to enhance the income limit and simplify the procedure. A meeting held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi and government has also given its nod to the proposal."

At present, to get the land a person has to satisfy the authority that he does not have any homestead land anywhere in the state.

"This implies that the tehsildar concerned of the locality has to ascertain that the person in whose favour homestead land is proposed to be settled under the project has no homestead land anywhere in the state, which is difficult to ascertain. Further, a person, who owns very little homestead land is also not eligible to get land under the scheme," he said.

Sources said: "Some of the tehsildars are insisting on obtaining no-land certificate from all tehsils in the state. Obtaining such certificates from all tehsils is next to impossible. This defeats the very purpose and the intention of the government to allot homestead land to landless persons residing in rural areas."

To ease the process, the state government has decided to make the beneficiary swear in an affidavit that he or she does not have any land anywhere.

"If at any point of time he/ she is found guilty, criminal action would be initiated against the person," he said.

To deal with income criterion, the state government has also raised the limit.

"The present income criterion of Rs 40,000 per person without homestead land was specified in 2015. In the meantime, the cost of living has increased and so also the minimum wages for an unskilled worker. The minimum rate of wage for an unskilled worker engaged in agriculture sector is Rs 200 per day. So if an unskilled worker engaged in agriculture sector works for at least 25 days a month, his/ her minimum annual income will be Rs 60,000, making him/ her ineligible for getting government homestead land even though he may be otherwise eligible under the law," he said.

The government has, therefore, decided: "The income criterion for person without homestead will be more dynamic. It will be linked to the rate of minimum wage fixed by the state government for unskilled workers engaged in agriculture sector and notified by the labour department from time to time."

A notification to this effect will be issued shortly, the official said.