According to government data, there are around 3.5 lakh people who do not own even a single piece of land. To provide at least 3 cents of land to these landless families a total of 10,500 acres of land is needed. Even if Kerala is a small state, the government can provide this much land to the landless. It is believed that the effort to provide land is already underway.

Compared to other states, Kerala is a state where the ratio of land to total population is the least. Our state was the first to implement land distribution and the benefits it reaped for lakhs of families cannot be neglected.

When the state is trying to transform Kerala into a state which has zero landless people, it must not be forgotten that thousands of acres are still in the hands of many. The limitation of land holdings is not applicable to plantation lands and land that were given for afforestation. Thousands of acres are still held by people in that way.

Last day, the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said that if the cases in the Land Boards are settled, 8120 acres of land will be available for distribution to landless families. He was speaking during the inauguration of the digital survey. As the legal proceedings related to land are complicated a usual approach towards these cases is not practical. A special action plan is needed to settle the cases in the Land Board.

For the first time, a big campaign to survey all the land in the state is underway. It will take at least three years to complete this project. Once the survey is completed a person can get the information about a piece of land without going to the revenue office. The people are waiting for that day when it will become operational. When we think about the difficulty in getting the documents of the land now, every person will only support the government’s initiative.

Even though it is been six and a half decades since Kerala became a state, the resurvey of even half the villages in the state is not done. There are also issues because of this.

Digital survey has begun now. Once the survey is completed, every landowner will get any document related to his landholding at any time. The Revenue Minister has said that no one will lose their land because of the survey.

Meanwhile, many have come forward to give land to landless families to build a house. This must be seen as big charity work. The government must make a special project regarding this. Some encouragement can be given to such people. For example when it comes to permission for the construction of buildings they can be given some exemptions. Currently, such exemptions are given to those who provide land for road construction.

If the government and the people join hands then land can be given to landless families without much delay.