The state government’s plan to provide the rural poor with land for a house as well some farm land so that they could eke out a living has found very few takers, mostly on account of the poor quality of the plot being offered.

The state launched the scheme, “Chash O Bosobasher Jonya Jomi” with a view to helping the rural poor who figure in the BPL list in January 2006 and had earmarked Rs 51 crore for the project. So far, it has been able to spend only Rs 6 crore.

Till February 28 this year, while the state government bought 453.62 acres of land for distribution among the landless in villages, it could distribute only 83.24 acres.

The number of beneficiaries in the last three years stood just at 796 while the number of rural people included in the BPL list is more than 1.5 crore.

While 2-3 decimals of land was given for building homes, 10-15 decimals of land was given for agriculture.

The reasons being attributed for the rural landless turning away from the offer are bad quality of land, dispute over the title of the land bought by the government, long distance of the land from the place where the beneficiary stays and delay in preparing the list of beneficiaries, to name a few.

Bad quality of land meant the land was either marshy or it was absolutely fallow.

“We were disappointed over the failure of the scheme. It could have led to an improvement in the standard of life of poor villagers,” said an official of the Land & Land Reforms Department.

Minister for the department, Abdur Rezaq Mollah, blamed panchayat samitis for the dismal performance of the government in this regard.