CM directs Revenue: Dept to speed up land record digitisation

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday directed the Revenue Department to speed up the digitization of land record and take steps to functionalize all the service delivery centres in the province.

He said this while chairing a meeting which reviewed the progress on the reform initiatives being introduced in the Revenue Department, said an official handout.

A KP cabinet member Qalander Khan Lodhi, Senior Member Board of Revenue Syed Zafar Ali Shah and others attended the meeting.

The chief minister said that physical progress on the implementation of all the reform initiatives should be ensured as per the given timelines.

Mahmood Khan directed the department to ensure issuance of ‘Fard’ of lands to the applicants within two days after receiving the applications.

He directed that a comprehensive strategy should be devised to make the land acquisition process for government departments fast and easier.

Earlier, the participants of the meeting were briefed in details about the performance of the Revenue Department.

The chief minister was told that major reforms were underway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Department to change the entire Patwar culture.

He was informed that various information technology interventions were being introduced in the land record, mutation, registration, tax collection and all other matters of the department to ensure maximum transparency and efficiency.

It was added that through the tax reforms the department had done away with duplication of various taxes and reduced its tax ratio by 4.5 per cent to give maximum relief to the general public.

The officials said the step had increased the overall tax collection ratio of the department. It was informed that Rs4904 million were collected during the last fiscal year which was the 87 per cent of target.

Similarly, during the first five months of current financial year Rs.2877 million have been collected which was the 65 per cent of the total target.

It was told that 1500 Kanal state land has been retrieved so far having the total cost of Rs2 billion, adding under the Revenue Court Disposal System 24,524 cases have been addressed thus far.

The chief minister was told that 19 Service Delivery Centers had been established in the different districts of the province.

All the facilities, including e-challan for issuance of ‘Fard’ and land mutation through biometric verification, etc would be available for people under the one roof.

The forum was told that, digitization process of land record of 58 tehsils of different districts would be completed by June 2022 whereas a project for the digitization of land record in the merged districts would be launched soon.

It was added that selection of Patwar training would be made through ETEA, adding that female quota had been introduced in Patwar for the first in the history of the country.

A new Patwar course was approved which include the syllabus based on Geographic Information System and computer training.

Moreover, centralization of software system, the establishment of land record complex and re-structuring of Board of Revenue was also in progress.

Of the legislative reforms, the participants were told that in July last year the land acquisition rules 2020 had been framed with special provisions for the land acquisition in merged areas.