Punjab CM Channi launches ‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’ scheme to give proprietary rights to those living in ‘lal dora’
‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’, seen as populist as Punjabs goes to assembly polls in four months, is a rechristened version of ‘Mission Lal Laqir’ , an extension of Centre’s Swamitav scheme
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday announced the ‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’ (my house in my name) scheme to give proprietary rights to people living in ‘lal dora’ of villages and towns for generations.

The scheme, seen as populist as the state will go to the assembly elections in four months, is a rechristened version of the ‘Mission Lal Laqir’ , an extension of the central government’s Swamitav (Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas) scheme.
Earlier, dwellers inside the ‘lal dora’ did not have ownership rights and they could not sell these properties.
The decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by the CM. The scheme, an official said, will also be applicable to towns which were upgraded to notified area committees (nagar panchayats) and further to municipal councils, but still have the lal dora system.
“We want to see results and have shortened the grievances redressal timeframe,” Channi told mediapersons after the meeting.
Soon after taking charges as CM, Channi had ordered to include Ropar district, which includes his constituency Chamkaur Sahib, under the ‘Mission Lal Laqir’ scheme.
Last year, the ‘Mission Lal Laqir’scheme was started in Gurdaspur district and is now will be extended to 5 more districts. So far, drone survey has been done in 350 villages of Gurdaspur and maps of 20 villages have been verified and sent to the Survey of India and the National Mapping Agency (NMA).
The state revenue department has constituted a steering committee led by chief secretary with district-level monitoring panels headed by the deputy commissioners with sub-divisional magistrates as member for grievance redrassal.
Other announcements
The CM later announced that the government will soon bring a legislation in the Vidhan Sabha to protect properties owned by NRIs settled abroad. Girdawari (assessment) of agriculture land owned by NRIs would be done in their names to prevent fraudulent sale, he added.
All consumers to get waiver of arrears of on power bills of up to 2KW load, the CM said, adding that out of 72 lakh consumers nearly 52 lakh would benefit from this. He said arrears in the last bill received by the consumer would be waived.
Channi said he had taken up the coal shortage issue with the Union ministry of coal so that there is no power crisis. “My government won’t let the state to plunge into darkness despite scarcity of coal. No intentional power cuts would be imposed,” he said.

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