187,000-acre state land retrieved in Punjab

LAHORE : Around 187,000 acres of state land worth Rs470billion have been retrieved from illegal occupants in Punjab , said senior member Board of Revenue (BoR) Babar Hayat Tarar in a press conference here on Friday.

Retrieval of land is a continuous process and we would retrieve all state land. Recently, we retrieved 2,500 acres in Khanewal. Two lakh 17 thousand acres of state land were occupied in Punjab, the board member said.

He said earlier a register of land records was digitised and now the whole record is being recorded. Girdawri is being done. At least 1,057 Dehi Markaz malls have been digitised. More rural centres would be digitised. We have built these record centres using existing government buildings, he said.

He said in the first phase Overseas Pakistanis of fourteen countries will be able to get furd online and transfer their land by sitting in an embassy. This facility would be enhanced in future, he added. He said digital cadastre of Lahore will be ready on November 15.

City gazetteers will be completed this year. Gazetteers have been completed in 12 cities. Gazetteers of the rest of the cities will also be completed soon. Lahore would also be divided in two districts and administrations will work as do work in other districts, Babar Hayat said and added land given in various livestock schemes has been acquired by the government.

Occupied government lands in Cholistan, DG Khan and Rajanpur have not been identified yet. Every inch of state land would be retrieved in the province. Land has been given to graduates on lease and they had given on contract to others. Government can get back the land from them. Land has been allotted in different cities for higher education, he added. Talking to the media, Babar Hayat Tarar said, “Walton Central Business District Authority has also been given land on profit sharing.”

White Cane Safety: University of Education (UOE) observed International White Cane Safety Day by organising an awareness walk at the university’s Township Campus here Friday.

The University of Education Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha led the walk which was attended by Director Division of Education, Dr Ayaz Muhammad Khan, Chairperson Department of Special Education, Dr Shaheen Pasha and visually-impaired faculty member Dr Aysha Saleem along with other faculty members, students and staff to create awareness and show solidarity with people having visual impairment.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said prospective teachers should adopt best teaching strategies to serve the people with special needs.