People run from pillar to post to get land record but in vain

Rawalpindi
Property record of people in Rawalpindi city, cantonment and rural areas is at stake due to mismanagement of revenue department officials. The revenue department failed to complete computerisation of revenue record even after five years. As a result, people not only run after ‘patwaris’ but computerisation staff as well to get their property record ('fard') but in vain.
The city district government, Rawalpindi, has once missed the revised deadline for computerisation of land record in Rawalpindi district. The deadline of the project, which began in 2009 and supposed to be completed by June 30, 2014, was revised to August 31, 2014. However, even after the expiry of the second, third and fourth deadline, more than 25% work is still left in seven tehsils of the district.
Public is suffering due to delay in computerisation of revenue record. ‘Patwaris’, who are not happy over computerisation system, push public to computerisation staff for getting their land record. However when people visit computerisation staff, they return the hapless public back to 'patwaris' citing errors in record.
When ‘The News’ contacted Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) Tasneem Ali Khan, he said: “We are trying to complete computerisation of record by the end of this month. But some ‘patwaris’ are not providing us land record; therefore we are facing delay in completing computerisation of land record. But, we would complete computerisation of land record by the end of this month,” he added.
According to data collected by ‘The News’, out of a total of 1,229 villages in seven tehsils of the district, including Rawalpindi, Murree, Kotli Sattian, Kallar Syedan, Kahuta, Gujar Khan and Taxila, the land record of 980 villages has been completed and 249 are still left.
Out of 352 villages in Rawalpindi, the land record of 318 has been completed. In Gujar Khan, out of 384 villages, record of 280 villages has been completed. Similarly, in Kotli Sattian, out of total of 58 villages, land of 40 villages has been completed. In Kahuta, out 160 villages, land of 135 villages has been computerised.
An official of the revenue department, on condition of anonymity, said that the delay was due to the resistance shown by the ‘patwaris’ (revenue officers), lack of relevant staff and non-existence of record from early 1950s, among several other reasons.
The official, who is closely monitoring the project, said initially ‘patwaris’ opposed the project and tried to create hurdles, adding that in some areas only a small number of staff was deputed which resulted in the delay. Murree and Kallar Syedan are leading as far as computerisation of the land record is concerned, where 98% of land record has been computerised. In Murree, out of 115 villages, land record of 98 villages has been completed. In Kallar Syedan, out of 106 villages, land record of 80 villages has been completed.
It is worth mentioning here that around 11,000 officials of the Punjab Revenue Department some months back resigned in protest against computerisation of land record in the province including Rawalpindi. The revenue officials locked their offices against computerisation of land record.
Anjuman Patwari Association (Rawalpindi) President Muhammad Hussain Qazi said that the computerisation of the land record will render 11,000 revenue officials in the province jobless as the government has refused to provide computer training to them and recruited new people. He said that 11,000 revenue officials in the province, including 305 ‘patwaris’ in Rawalpindi, had submitted their resignations and locked their offices. “We requested the Punjab government to provide us computer training, but the concerned authority did not consider our request. Therefore, we have tendered our resignations and locked our offices in protest,” he claimed.
Qazi Mohammad Hussain said that revenue officials were not against the computerisation of land record but wanted to get computer training to perform this task efficiently. “The computer operators appointed for the task will find themselves in a difficult situation when they will come across technical issues in maintaining the revenue record, which slows down the pace of work,” he added. He said that after computerisation, the revenue officials would be axed.
Talking to ‘The News,’ hundreds of clients at District Courts, Rawalpindi Tehsil and computerisation office near Mandra said that they are facing worst kinds of problems in getting their own land record ‘fard’ or copy of ‘intiqal’.