Chandigarh, January 6: Slum dwellers of the four districts of Patiala, Bathinda and Fazilka will get proprietary rights in the first phase of the Chief Minister’s Slum Development Program – ‘BASERA’. Those living in the slums of Moga will be granted their rights by shifting them to a separate municipal land at MogaJeet Singh.
Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh gave his approval to these decisions at a high-level virtual meeting on Wednesday, thus paving the way for benefitting a total of 2816 individuals/units in 10 slums – 364 in MC Patiala, 200 in MC Bathinda, 2000 in MC Abohar (Fazilka) and 252 in MC Moga (residents in 3 slums of Moga will be shifted), in the first go, with one lakh slum dwellers to get such rights eventually across all districts of the state.
The BASERA scheme, guided by the Punjab Proprietary Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2020 along with the allied Rules, is a milestone step of the state government towards inclusive urban development and planning. BASERA, which was approved by the state cabinet earlier, lays the foundation for mainstreaming of slums with the rest of the city by involving just and inclusive city development paradigms in practice, across all the districts of the state.
Every slum household occupying land in a slum in any urban area on the date of notification of The Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020, i.e., 1st April 2020, is eligible under the scheme. However, the beneficiaries will not be permitted to alienate the transferred land for 30 years.
At present, there are approximately 243 slums having around 1 lakh slum dwellers in ULBs. Other districts (apart from Patiala, Bathinda, Fazilka and Moga) are currently in the process of identifying the slums and delineating slum boundaries, along with slum household survey. Simultaneously, a tenability analysis is also being conducted for the land occupied by the slum dwellers.
As per the approval accorded today, in MC Patiala, 156 beneficiaries will get proprietary rights in RohitKut (Lakkad Mandi) slum covering 1.052 Hac (including internal roads), 180 in Range Shah Colony (1.591 Hac) and 28 in Deendayal Upadhayay Nagar (0.6962 Hac). In MC Bathinda, 200 will benefit in Orriya Colony (6.25 acres), while in MC Abohar, the number of beneficiaries in 1500 in Indira Colony (25.86 acres) and 500 in Sant Nagar (7.02 acres). MC Moga beneficiaries who are being shifted to MogaJeet Singh are 130 (Nehari Basti & Suraj Nagar North), 104 (New Dana Mandi) and 18 (Preet Nagar, Near Kotkapura Byepass).
