Sindh digitises land records, industrial matters with online app

KARACHI: Sindh government launched a mobile app on Friday to offer online services for land and industrial matters, a move that the provincial minister for revenue, industries, and commerce said would boost transparency and ease of doing business.

The app, called E-Services Sindh, was developed in two months by the Board of Revenue Sindh and the Industries Department. It allows users to access digitized land records and maps of all the estates of SITE Limited and Sindh Small Industries Corporation across the province.

The app also enables online applications and delivery of documents for no-objection certificates, permissions, and transfers, eliminating the need for physical visits to government offices.

"This is a historical day for governance in Sindh, where all the land records and maps of all the estates of SITE Limited and Sindh Small Industries Corporation across Sindh, including Karachi, Nooriabad, Hyderabad, Kotri, Sukkur, etc., have been digitized," Younus Dagha, the caretaker minister, said at the launch event attended by industrialists, diplomats, and government officials.

"Applicants will not have to come to the offices or wait for action on their applications indefinitely. The new system fixes time limits on the officials for the disposal of the applications."

Dagha said the app would enhance the security of government records, especially land ownership records, which had become prone to manipulation and tampering. "Now the records will be available online, bringing transparency and security of record in these organizations," he added.

The minister said the monitoring system will help ensure the performance accountability of the officials and improve the ease of doing business. "The system provides for online applications as well as delivery of documents through courier services, eliminating any human interaction in the entire process."

He said the system will require some time to attain maturity but hoped that the elected government would further strengthen and improve the system in the coming months.

Dagha said that Sindh had taken a big leap forward by implementing the modern e-governance system in one important provincial department, which would pave the way for the other departments to follow.

He hoped that the elected government would further strengthen and improve the system in the coming months and disclosed that the e-services would also be launched in all the offices of the revenue department in the coming days.

Zubair Motiwala, the chief executive officer of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, and other representatives of the business community lauded the efforts of the provincial government in bringing comprehensive reforms to the governance of the industries department.

They said that it was a much-awaited step in improving the investment environment of the province and expressed hope that the coming elected government would own this initiative and bring further improvements to it.

The event was also attended by the senior member of the Board of Revenue Sindh, the secretary of industries and commerce, and other officers of related departments.