KARACHI - At least 15,901 acres of the identified state land to be distributed among the farmers free of cost currently falls in disputes and matter is pending in court of law, official sources told The Nation. The Board of Revenue, Department of Sindh government has identified an area of 91,923 acres state land to allot the farmers especially women free of cost. While, out of this identified land, the Sindh government has distributed at least 42, 875 acres among the landless farmers, so far. However, an official source in Board of Revenue disclosed that government is facing various problems in distribution of state land to the growers as a huge area of land falls under the area which is disputed among the various parties as well as the government. Identifying the problems officials said that matter of ownership of 4,726 acres of land is pending in court of law and stay orders are given by courts, which stood 6 per cent of chosen land. Similarly, another area of 7,606 acres land also falls under disputes in various parties, while matter of other 3569 acres of land has been identified as disputed land, officials said. The matter of total 15,901 acres of state land is in disputes and pending in court of law, however, this disputed area stood 15 per cent of the around one lacs acres chosen to distribute among the farmers especially in women free of cost. Meanwhile, an area of 26,425 acres of land are remaining, which is to be distributed among the farmers very soon, officials maintained. The Nation tried to contact Zulfiqar Nizamani who is focal person of the Sindh Government regarding distribution of state land programme to get official version, but he was not available on phone. Sources said that total 42,875 acres land has been distributed among 4176 farmers, major beneficiaries are women (2,913 or 70pc) and 1,263 (30%) are male during one and half year period of present provincial government. So far, no further allotment of land has been initiated owing to number of reasons such as delay in identification of state land and to get salvation of disputes on land. Sources said that initially it has been decided that only women farmers would be allotted land to increase/uplift their income generation and social status. Male farmers were also included in the policy. The objective of this programme was to bring structural transformation in the province of Sindh with targeting only genuine and poor landless farmers and giving clear priority to women of landless farmers family members. Furthermore, to provide a strong platform for economic empowerment of poor women was also main objective of this programme. Earlier, this programme was launched during FY2008-09. In this regards, three kinds of state land was targeted namely Barrage, Katcha and Barrani, while Sindh government has already announced that over 0.2 million acres state land will be distributed to the poor landless farmers of the Sindh. The distribution of state land is being carried out under Land Grant Policy1989, and it was decided that Barrage state land would be granted to genuine poor farmers upto 25 acres and non transferable for 15 years, for which an amendment in land grant policy was also made in last year. Sources maintained that government has decided that in future only women would be eligible for allotment of state land.