Unsatisfactory performance of PLRA: Punjab govt asks commissioners to reintroduce Patwari system

LAHORE: The Punjab government has asked all divisional commissioners to partially reintroduce the patwari system to overcome the ongoing problems being faced by the district administration in fulfilling its several official tasks.

Introduced in the British era, the patwari system was rolled back by the former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif. He had introduced the Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) for computerisation of the land record with the World Bank financial assistance.

Sources in the Board of Revenue (BoR) revealed that the district administration used to assign a patwari various social, political and administrative tasks, including record-keeping of weather, collecting crop harvest data, collecting Abiyana as well as agriculture tax, reporting village crimes, updating population voters’ registers.

Sources said the BoR Punjab has asked divisional commissioners to allocate two kanungoi (revenue circle) in each district. Once the commissioners nominate these two circles, tehsildars and patwaris will be posted.

A patwari possessed a Basta (bag) which contained seventeen registers having records like Register Intiqalat, Register of Khasra Gurdawri, Register Haqdaraan Zamindar, Field Book and many others. This is why a patwari, though a very low grade official, held a very important position in society.

Sources said that the PLRA failed to digitise record of Shajrah-e-Nasb, Register Haqdaran-e-Zamin, Register Gardawari, Register Tagayarat-e-Kasht, Register Intiqaalat, Field Book, Indexes, Roznamcha, Partaal Roznamcha Waqaati, Roznamcha Hidayati, Roznamcha Karguzari and Village Books. This is why the need for a patwari remains there always, sources added.

Punjab Revenue Minister Malik Muhammad Anwar told The News that with the end of role of patwaris in the revenue system, the district administrations were facing difficulties in completion of various tasks. Patwaris are the main field force and, after losing their powers in the land record, they also lost their influence on people in other fields.