Punjab government distributes property cards to residents in Lal Lakir areas

The Punjab government has begun distributing property cards to residents living in Lal Lakir areas, which are inhabited portions of villages that historically lacked formal ownership records.

This initiative provides legal ownership rights to families who previously had no official documents to establish property boundaries or prove ownership. These records help residents avoid family and neighbor disputes and allow owners to use their homes as collateral for bank loans. The project has seen involvement from three successive state governments.

The Congress government under Capt Amarinder Singh launched the initiative in 2021 as Mission Lal Lakir. The subsequent government led by Charanjit Singh Channi renamed the program Mera Ghar Mere Naam and passed the Punjab Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Act, 2021 to provide a legal framework for the records.

The current Aam Aadmi Party government led by Bhagwant Mann is now executing the distribution and recently amended the 2021 Act to shorten the time for filing and deciding on objections. Officials use drone-based surveys to create a Record of Rights for the inhabited areas. Each property card includes a survey unit number, a GPS location, a drone-generated map, and a QR code for online verification.

The government plans to complete the exercise in four phases across 10,689 villages by January 2027. The first phase, covering 2,284 villages, has a completion deadline of November 15.