With an eye on impending elections, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday announced a ‘rechristened’ scheme - Mera Ghar Mere Naam (My House in my Name) - to give ownership rights to the people living for generations within Lal Dora in rural areas and cities.
The new scheme is the rechristened version of the ‘Mission Lal Lakir’, announced by the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh early this year. Notably, the State Cabinet, under Capt Amarinder in February 2021, had approved the implementation of ‘Mission Lal Lakir’ in all the villages across the State to facilitate villagers or owners to monetize property rights and avail various benefits provided by Government departments or institutions and banks.
Under the ‘Mission Lal Lakir’, the Government was to give property rights to house dwellers living in the lal dora of 12,700 villages. Lal dora is a village settlement, comprising a cluster of houses where residents live; and is surrounded by a road and outside it is the agriculture land attached with a particular village. It refers to land that is part of the village ‘abaadi’ (habitation) and is used for non-agriculture purposes only.
Earlier, dwellers inside the lal dora did not have ownership rights, but the Mission Lal Lakir was aimed at giving them the rights to make properties saleable. The lal dora has now been extended for house dwellers in municipal limits of cities and towns for generations but people don’t have ownership rights.
The state government’s Mission Lal Lakir was an extension of the Centre’s SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) scheme for which a pilot project was started in villages of Gurdaspur district six months ago.
Now, as per the Cabinet decision on Monday, the same scheme has been renamed and extended to cover the rural areas also.
Announcing the scheme, Chief Minister Channi said that the Government would bestow proprietary rights on the people living in the houses within the ‘Lal Lakir’ of villages and the also cities, and the entire exercise would be completed within two months.
Channi said that the Revenue Department has been mandated to undertake drone survey of such residential properties both in rural and urban areas for digital mapping. Subsequently, all the eligible residents after proper
identification or verification would be given the property cards (sanads) to confer proprietary rights upon them.
Prior to this, the beneficiaries would be given 15 days time to file their objections in this regard. In case no reply is received from them, the property card would be issued which would serve the purpose of registry against which they can get loans from the banks or even sell their properties thus enhancing its monetary value, said Channi.
The Chief Minister also mentioned that the people, residing in the houses in old localities (mohallas) since generations, would also be covered under the scheme.
He also pointed out that even the NRIs, who had occupied such residential properties in villages or cities, would also be duly informed to raise objections so as to give proprietary rights to them.
LEGISLATION TO
SAFEGUARD NRIs’
PROPERTIES SOON
To safeguard the properties of NRIs settled across the globe, the Chief Minister said that the State Government would soon bring legislation in this behalf in the next session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
He also announced that the girdawari (revenue assessment) of the agricultural land, owned by them, would be done in their names to prevent illegal or fraudulent sale of properties by certain unscrupulous elements.
ELECTRICITY ARREARS WAIVER OF ALL CONSUMERS WITH UPTO 2 KW LOAD
On the issue of waiving off the arrears of electricity bills up to two kilowatt (KW) load, the Chief Minister categorically said that anyone regardless of caste, creed, and religion would get the benefit of waiver.
“Out of 72 lakh consumers, nearly 52 lakh across the State would be benefitted,” he said while clarifying that only those arrears mentioned in the last bill
received by the consumer would be waived off.