Bhopal, April 17 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh government Thursday decided to confer land ownership rights to all urban slum dwellers in the state. The state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, decided that all families living in slums as of Dec 31, 2007, on the government land would be eligible to get ownership rights.

Accordingly, even if any slum was required to be relocated in larger public interest, the families living there would be granted temporary authority letters and they would be resettled elsewhere.

Slum dwellers living as tenants would also be entitled to ownership rights but the dwelling owner, in such a case, would not be entitled to any rights.

The government would conduct a survey of the homeless families living in slums in urban areas of the state by June 15, 2008, and the work related to allotment of ownership rights would soon be taken up.