Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh decides to allot 1 lakh residential plots to homeless Dalit families

Seeking to meet the Congress' 2017 poll promise, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on January 22 announced allotment of one lakh plots of over 1,300 square ft each to homeless Dalit families in the state.

Announcing his decision, the chief minister said in the first phase of the allotment, at least 10 plots of five 'marlas' each would be allotted to homeless scheduled caste families in each village, where land is available with the village panchayat.

One marla is equal to over 272 square ft of land. 

Where the panchayat land is not available, the allotment would be done in the second phase after arranging the land, said an official press release quoting the chief minister.

The statement said the Rural Development and Panchayat Department has been given the task to monitor the allotment process.

Singh announced the decision during a review meeting of the government projects with deputy commissioners of various districts of the state.

In the meeting, Singh also asked deputy commissioners to work harder for timely completion of various government projects and implementation of the people welfare schemes, which the Congress had promised in its poll manifesto 22 months ago before coming to power.

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Warning officials that the corruption would not be tolerated at any level, Singh said his government was ready to extend any help needed by them to ensure timely completion of the projects for development of the state.

The chief minister also asked them to ensure that all elected representatives, including the MLAs and sarpanches are accorded due courtesy and respect by them.

They represent the people in a democracy and we must be cordial with them in our dealings, he said.

Reiterating his warning against corruption, the chief minister asked deputy commissioners to identify all "bad eggs" in various government offices, including those in block development officers, tehsils and police stations and weed them out.

The chief minister held the meeting days after seeking feedback from the Congress MLAs on the functioning of his government.

As per the release, the feedback had suggested that people felt that the pace of works was "very slow", over which the chief minister expressed concern and sought speedy implementation of the government's projects and schemes.

On the issue of debt waiver too, the chief minister asked deputy commissioners to involve local representatives to ensure that no eligible person is left out of the scheme.

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