Unused govt. land to be identified for LIFE Mission in Kozhikode
The Revenue department will soon initiate measures to identify unused government land in the possession of various departments in Kozhikode district and allocate it for the construction of houses under the LIFE Mission for extremely poor people. A data bank of such unused land will be prepared within two months by Revenue officials led by the District Collector.
According to a recent State government order (GO), the Collector is authorised to take over such identified plots without requiring No-Objection Certificates from landholders. The land thus acquired can be easily allocated to beneficiaries based on a district-level screening.
Sources in the Revenue department said that the latest GO authorised officials to assess the availability of two acres in each grama panchayat, one acre in each municipality, and 50 cents within the Kozhikode Corporation limits for the execution of affordable housing projects. Only plots that were not required for future development projects would be considered for acquisition, they pointed out.
'The details of extremely poor people are already available with the local administrators for consideration under the new scheme. There are a total of 2,991 landless families across the State to be considered under the scheme,' said a senior Revenue official. He added that all efforts would be made to fulfil requirements of the identified families by November 2025.
In Kozhikode, the 'Manassode Ithiri Mannu' campaign initiated by the State government has encouraged many people to voluntarily contribute land for the LIFE Mission project. According to government records, the Revenue department has received 90.75 cents in the district for house construction. The donors were mostly from Thalakkulathur, Kunnamangalam, Kottur, Villiappally, Perumanna, Koodaranhi, Chakkittappara, and Omassery.
LIFE Mission coordinators said that a total of 33,477 houses were constructed under the project in three phases in the district. The support of various government departments, State government schemes, and assistance under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana projects also contributed to the timely completion of the houses, they pointed out.
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