Punjab government to give property rights to people living in ‘Lal Lakir’

“People who are living within the ‘Lal Lakir’ in villages and cities do not have ownership rights. We have decided to confer the ownership rights on the people who have been living in these areas,” he said after chairing a cabinet meeting here.

On Monday, Punjab Chief Minister, Charanjit Singh Channi said that property rights will be provided to the people living in the houses within the ‘Lal Lakir’ of villages and cities. The mission was renamed by changing ‘Mission Lal Lakir’ to ‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’. ‘Lal Lakir’ refers to the land that is part of the village ‘abadi’ (habitation) and is obtained for non-agricultural objectives.

After chairing a cabinet meeting here, he said “People who are living within the ‘Lal Lakir’ in villages and cities do not have ownership rights. We have decided to confer the ownership rights on the people who have been living in these areas.”

By availing loans from the bank, with this move citizens will be able to monetize their property rights. While addressing the media here, Channi said that for digital mapping, the revenue department has been ordered to undertake surveys through drones of residential properties available in both rural and urban areas.

He said property cards will be given to all the eligible residents after adequate verification to grant proprietary rights to them

A time of 15 days will be given to the beneficiaries to file their complaints in this regard. If there is no reply received from them, the property card would be handed out which would serve the purpose of a registry against which they can obtain loans from the banks or even sell their properties thus strengthening its monetary value.

Earlier, the residents of the villages were getting benefits from this scheme and it was limited only to them, but now all the eligible residents of cities within the ‘Lal Lakir’ will get covered under this scheme. People residing in old localities (mohallas) generation after generation will also be covered under the scheme, Channi said.

Even the NRIs of the villages or cities were pointed out by the Chief Minister who had acquired such residential properties. It would also be duly informed to raise objections to give proprietary rights to them.  Legislation in Punjab Vidhan Sabha will soon come to safeguard the properties of NRIs settled across the globe, said channel.

To safeguard the agricultural land owned by the NRIs including the illegal sale of properties by certain unscrupulous elements, Channi announced that entry into the revenue records would be made.

The chief minister said on the issue of waiving arrears of electricity bills up to 2 kW load, that anyone regardless of caste, creed and religion would get the benefit of waiver. Nearly 52 lakh consumers out of 72 lakh consumers across the state would be benefited, said the CM.

Last month, the state government had announced that those having electricity connections of up to 2 KW to waive their power bills. CM also demonstrated that only those arrears presented in the last bill collected by the consumer would be waived.