No proposal for free power to govt schools in Punjab: House told

There was no proposal for providing free power to government schools in Punjab, the government told the state Assembly Thursday, noting that a total of 4,130 government schools in the state had pending electricity bills of Rs 7.03 crore.

During the Question Hour on the third day of the Budget Session here, AAP legislator from Sunam, Aman Arora, asked the state government to give details of the pending electricity bills towards government schools in the state.

Replying to the question, power minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar informed the House that Rs 702.78 lakh was pending against 4,130 primary, middle and senior secondary schools of the Punjab government.

"Fourteen connections of government schools have been removed due to non-payment of electricity bills," the minister said. He said the total annual electricity bill of all government schools in Punjab is about Rs 1,684.87 lakh.

To a question on whether there was any proposal of the government to provide free electricity to government schools, the minister said as on date, no such proposal was under consideration of the government of Punjab.

The Punjab government also informed the House that it would carry out the process of preparing ownership records of houses within the boundary of 'lal lakir' (red line).

'Lal lakir' refers to land that is part of the village 'abadi' (habitation) and is used for non-agricultural purpose only.

Akali MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu sought to know whether there was any proposal under consideration of the state government to register ownership of houses or land inside the red line of villages and cities in name of occupiers.

"Occupiers of land cannot claim ownership on houses or land and they event cannot take loan against them," Tinu pointed out while demanding that ownership of houses or land should be ensured in name of occupiers.

The process of preparing ownership records of houses within the boundary of 'lal lakir' is being carried out by the department of rural development and panchayats.

"A new Act would have to be enacted to create ownership rights in the land records, said Revenue Minister Sukhbinder Sarkaria while taking a swipe at Akalis "for not undertaking" this exercise during its regime.