Express News Service
RAIPUR: The ‘Masahati’ survey (a survey of un-surveyed villages) brings joy to the tribal residents of Abujhmad (meaning unfamiliar land) in Narayanpur district, south Chhattisgarh, as for the first time over 2,200 farmers sold their paddy at the minimum support price during the ongoing procurement by the state government for Kharif marketing year 2022-23.
The area of Abujhmad, spread over 4000 sq. km, covers the region of Narayanpur, Bijapur, Dantewada and remains surrounded by hilly mountainous even inhospitable terrain with densely forested landscape, having remained isolated for decades. The survey of the land was not carried out since independence owing to which the tribal inhabitants were not just deprived of government welfare schemes but faced many problems.
The preliminary exercise on ‘Masahati’ survey in recent years now demolishing the myths associated with the dreadful little-known Abujhmad, the region where a strong belief prevailed for decades of being controlled by the outlawed CPI (Maoist) and purportedly converted into their bastion, with no reach of any civil administration.
There are over 275 villages reported in the insurgency-hit Abujhmad, some 350 km south of Raipur, where the process of the survey was not done and so the state government didn’t have any records of these habitations. The state cabinet in 2019 took a decision to provide over 50 thousand tribal people living in these villages with Masahati khasra on the basis of preliminary records to get ‘patta’ (land title deed) as land ownership.
“We have initiated concrete action for the people living in Abujhmad and the positive results are now visible at the ground-level’’, said CM Bhupesh Baghel. “246 villages were notified for the ‘Masahati survey’ of the Narayanpur district by the revenue department. So far 110 villages have been successfully completed. Masahati khasra has been distributed to more than 7700 residents in the region”, said the officials in Narayanpur district.
With no land-related documents owing to a lack of survey earlier, many farmers neither could access the benefits of the government schemes nor secure agriculture loans from banks. For the first time after the farmers got the ownership rights, the Abujhmad farmers in Narayanpur have begun selling their paddy, the officials added. The government believes that around 10 thousand farmers will soon get ownership of over 50 thousand hectares of land in Abujhmad.
“After getting masahati khasra, the farmers are selling their paddy for the first time at the support price. Earlier we were compelled to give away our produce to middlemen at less than half the price. I sold 32 quintals of paddy this year”, said Pappu Potai, a farmer of Kandadi village in Narayanpur. The farmers of Abujhmad are now also getting solar dual pumps for irrigation purposes, bank loans, horticulture tool kits, and even caste certificates.
RAIPUR: The ‘Masahati’ survey (a survey of un-surveyed villages) brings joy to the tribal residents of Abujhmad (meaning unfamiliar land) in Narayanpur district, south Chhattisgarh, as for the first time over 2,200 farmers sold their paddy at the minimum support price during the ongoing procurement by the state government for Kharif marketing year 2022-23.
The area of Abujhmad, spread over 4000 sq. km, covers the region of Narayanpur, Bijapur, Dantewada and remains surrounded by hilly mountainous even inhospitable terrain with densely forested landscape, having remained isolated for decades. The survey of the land was not carried out since independence owing to which the tribal inhabitants were not just deprived of government welfare schemes but faced many problems.
The preliminary exercise on ‘Masahati’ survey in recent years now demolishing the myths associated with the dreadful little-known Abujhmad, the region where a strong belief prevailed for decades of being controlled by the outlawed CPI (Maoist) and purportedly converted into their bastion, with no reach of any civil administration.
There are over 275 villages reported in the insurgency-hit Abujhmad, some 350 km south of Raipur, where the process of the survey was not done and so the state government didn’t have any records of these habitations. The state cabinet in 2019 took a decision to provide over 50 thousand tribal people living in these villages with Masahati khasra on the basis of preliminary records to get ‘patta’ (land title deed) as land ownership.
“We have initiated concrete action for the people living in Abujhmad and the positive results are now visible at the ground-level’’, said CM Bhupesh Baghel. “246 villages were notified for the ‘Masahati survey’ of the Narayanpur district by the revenue department. So far 110 villages have been successfully completed. Masahati khasra has been distributed to more than 7700 residents in the region”, said the officials in Narayanpur district.
With no land-related documents owing to a lack of survey earlier, many farmers neither could access the benefits of the government schemes nor secure agriculture loans from banks. For the first time after the farmers got the ownership rights, the Abujhmad farmers in Narayanpur have begun selling their paddy, the officials added. The government believes that around 10 thousand farmers will soon get ownership of over 50 thousand hectares of land in Abujhmad.
“After getting masahati khasra, the farmers are selling their paddy for the first time at the support price. Earlier we were compelled to give away our produce to middlemen at less than half the price. I sold 32 quintals of paddy this year”, said Pappu Potai, a farmer of Kandadi village in Narayanpur. The farmers of Abujhmad are now also getting solar dual pumps for irrigation purposes, bank loans, horticulture tool kits, and even caste certificates.