LucknowJul 21, 2025 16:59 IST
First published on: Jul 21, 2025 at 16:59 IST
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The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to expedite the process of providing land ownership rights to about 20,000 refugee families, largely from East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh), who settled in the state between 1950 and 1975.
The decision was taken on Monday at a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, where a discussion took place on steps that needed to be taken to “remove hurdles” in giving ownership rights to refugee families, especially those settled in reserved forest areas of Bijnor and Rampur and other legal challenges associated with the process.
According to officials, most of these families hail from Bangladesh – then East Pakistan – and have settled mainly in Pilibhit, Bijnor, Rampur and Lakhimpur Khiri districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Sources said the basis of the initiative would be a report submitted in May by the panel constituted last year under the leadership of Moradabad Commissioner Aunjaneya Singh. “The experiences of the Uttarakhand government will also be taken into consideration,” a source said.
Claiming that the Adityanath government is committed to providing long-pending land ownership rights to the refugees, state Minister and Bislaspur MLA Baldeo Singh Aulakh said “concrete steps” would be taken in this regard by August 15, if things go as planned.
A senior officer admitted that identification of the families would not be easy as many of them had initially settled in the state through transit camps and may not have legal documentation.
According to sources, about 10,000 families had initially settled in around 142 villages of the four districts but their number at present “is far greater”. “Among the biggest challenges is providing land for those in the forest areas of Rampur and Bijnor and segregating actual refugees from others in the villages,” a source said.
As the Supreme Court has ruled against giving ownership rights of forest lands, the government is also considering the option of rehabilitating the families elsewhere. “As the number of refugee families have gone up over the years, rehabilitation would not be easy but many options are on the table,” an officer said.
In 2022, after assuming power for the second time, the Adityanath government had leased out land to 63 families in Hastinapur of Meerut district.
Officials said families displaced during Partition as well as the 1971 India-Pakistan war are being considered in this process, with most of them from East Pakistan.