Land Rights of Persons with Disabilities Come Under Focus at Odisha Commission Meeting

Bhubaneswar: Ensuring access to homestead land and protecting property rights of persons with disabilities emerged as a key concern at a meeting of the State Commission for Persons with Disabilities in Bhubaneswar, with officials discussing gaps in existing provisions and ways to make government schemes more accessible.

The seventh meeting of the Commission, chaired by State Commissioner Bratati Harichandan, focused on “Property Rights and Land Ownership Problems of the Disabled” and brought together officials from the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Registration authorities, Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department and district administration.

Harichandan sought information from the Revenue Department on the facilities currently available for persons with disabilities and stressed the need to make government schemes more responsive to their specific requirements.

She suggested that application forms for government schemes should have a dedicated option for persons with disabilities to indicate the facilities and assistance they require. Such provisions, she said, could help authorities better identify beneficiaries and ensure that disability-related needs are not overlooked during implementation.

Khordha Additional District Collector Pratap Chandra Beura highlighted the availability of homestead land provisions under the Vasundhara Yojana. He said families having less than four decimals of total landholding can be provided homestead land under the scheme.

Beura also pointed out that persons with disabilities constitute diverse categories and suggested that appropriate categorisation could help authorities address their land and housing-related requirements more effectively.

The meeting also examined practical difficulties encountered by persons with disabilities in securing land and property rights. Deputy Secretary of the Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department, Sanyasi Behera, presented various cases and discussed possible measures to address the challenges.

Officials from the registration and district administration also shared their perspectives on the issue. Deputy Secretary of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department and the Joint Inspector General of Registration, Odisha, Cuttack, participated in the deliberations, while Cuttack Additional District Magistrate Dibyalochana Mahanta also shared her views.

The discussions emphasised the need for better coordination among departments to ensure that persons with disabilities can effectively access land-related schemes and exercise their property rights.

Representatives of social institutions and organisations, officials from various departments and staff of the State Commission also participated in the meeting.

The session began with a welcome address by the OSD to the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.