DW BUREAU / LUDHIANA Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Saturday directed the officials to expedite the process of completing formalities others to ensure the benefits of government's pro-poor schemes Basera and Mera Ghar Mere Naam. In a meeting with officials of the district administration, Ashu termed both programs as landmark initiatives and said that both schemes would greatly help the people, especially those from needy and underprivileged strata. This meeting was attended by Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, MC Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal, MC Councillors Mamta Ashu, Dilraj Singh, Pankaj Kaka, Dr Hari Singh Brar, Rashi Aggarwal, Maharaj Singh Raji, MC Additional Commissioner Aditya Dachalwal, Joint Commissioner Ankur Mahindru, SDM Veneet Kumar and Jagdeep Sehgal, Municipal Town Planner Surinder Singh Bindra, besides several others. He said that Basera scheme aims at transforming urban slum areas with basic civic amenities, including potable drinking water, street lighting, and roads to slum dwellers and proprietary rights are being given to every slum household occupying the state government land in a slum of any city area. He added that under this scheme, those living in slum areas, in houses of a maximum size of 30 sq yard will be benefitted from ownership of the house. Similarly under Mera Ghar Mere Naam scheme, ownership rights are being provided to people living in houses within the 'lal lakir' of villages and cities. Lal lakir is a term used for the land that is part of the village habitation and is used for non-agriculture purposes only. (editor@dailyworld.in)