People demand completion of land record of urban areas

JHANG: Traders and other civil society members on Sunday demanded Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz and other authorities take notice of incomplete computerisation of public and private land record of the urban areas pending for the last many years.

They said that appropriate action was required to root-out corruption from the local revenue offices as state land continuously started shrinking in different revenue circles. The aggrieved citizens also pointed out that clerical staff and patwaris deliberately raise objections to the routine work of the people for the sake of minting money.

A local trader Haji M Hussain by providing written evidence alleged that some powerful persons of the city with the connivance of the revenue officials had succeeded in grabbing a very precious urban state land of Sultan Shah Graveyard of the city. He said that the higher authorities had ordered appropriate action against state land grabber who sold the Sultan Shah Graveyard by showing his ownership but instead of retrieving the land, they disposed of the matter in favour of the influential land grabber and officials.

The available documents revealed that in the light of the directions of BOR, former DC Fayyaz Mohal had issued instructions to the local revenue and municipality officials that while issuing the NOCs to the private residential colonies, it would be made mandatory that the ownership of the land of colonies streets, parks and mosques must be transferred to the government’s name, however, most important instructions had not be implemented in letter and spirit. It was learnt that the Government Associate College of Commerce for Women’s principal by providing the final decision of the BOR had approached to the then DC to get the college land retrieved urgently required for the construction of college building. However, efforts of the female commerce college administration proved fruitless and the classes were still going on in some rooms of the hostel of Government Girls Graduate College Sadar, official sources added. Sources revealed that the revenue circles of Gumnana, Civil Lines, Janobi, Shumali and others were very attractive for posting of patwari and other revenue officials because it falls in the urban areas where vast state land was available and private residential colonies were being established.

The aggrieved citizens, including Zafar Sipra advocate, pointed out that repeated warnings were served to the revenue officials/patwari to relieve private clerks from revenue offices, a main reason for increasing public complaints about corruption but to no avail.