Land Revenue Department reforms continue

[Salman]

Land Revenue Department reforms continue

Islamabad

Patwaris, probably for the first time in the history of Land Revenue Department, joined hands against the computerisation of the Land Revenue Record to favour old practices that is ‘full of corruption’.

Almost all the 40 Patwaris of the Islamabad Capital Territory gathered at Tarlai Revenue Centre (Patwar Khana) on last Wednesday and finalised their future strategy to protect their ‘rights’, the sources from the Land Revenue Department, disclosed.

‘Defiance campaign’, would be staged to record their protest against the computerisation of the Land Revenue Record, the sources said. The deputy commissioner office confirmed the report, when contacted by this scribe.

The reason of the planned protest, according to the Land Revenue Department of the Islamabad District, is that the Land Revenue Record of about 17 Mauzas (villages) out of 80 have been computerised during the last two months, while record of remaining Mauzas would be completed within the first quarter of the next year, which will completely shut down the doors of corruption for Patwaris, who allegedly make billions of rupees every year, the sources of Revenue Department of Islamabad, disclosed to ‘The News’.

Since the formation of the new government the Deputy Commissioner’s Office Islamabad has been taking several measures to reform the Land Revenue Department of ICT. The measures have been identified and adopted keeping in view two important aspects of improvement. With a view to reform the department, new initiatives have been undertaken which are in various phases of completion. At the same time, correctional measures, in accordance with law, have been initiated to ensure that the department is free of corrupt and delinquent personnel.

Deputy Commissioner Amer Ahmed is personally supervising these reforms, the sources said. The action against corrupt and delinquent officials was taken and they are being proceeded against, the sources said and added that 13 Patwaris have been suspended on corruption charges so far, two issued show-cause notices, one dismissal from service and one has been arrested.

Secondly, taking departmental action, all the revenue officials have been transferred en masse to other revenue circles to ensure that they do not indulge in corrupt practices with connivance of the locals. While, attendance of the revenue staff and availability of their record in respective revenue centres are being ensured.

The assistant commissioners and magistrates have been directed to carry out inspections and ensure on-time arrival and attendance of revenue officials in their offices, and ACs are sitting in the revenue centres for two days in a week to monitor performance and attend complaints of the public.

“Following reform interventions are being carried out to streamline the procedures and land record in the Revenue Department and make it transparent and accessible to the general public,” the sources said. They added, “The computerisation of entire revenue record of District Islamabad is currently underway and is going through various phases of completion. While, entire Record of District Islamabad has been scanned and data entry of 17 Revenue Estates has been completed by EGD/Vendor, while, verification of digitized record of 5 revenue estates have been completed and going through final review by the vendor.

The land record is available online through Service Centres and the record of 2 revenue estates have been put online at initial stage.

A software based complaints receipt, tracking and address system has been introduced in the Registration Branch in the Joint Sub-Registrar Office under Complaints Response Management System. It is an SMS based system through which the citizens can lodge their complaints via SMS. The deputy commissioner and one assistant commissioner will be on call and personally inquire about nature and disposal of complaints on a regular basis. This system is intended to be rolled out to the Revenue Centres in 2 weeks and in all other branches of DC Office, such as Domicile, IDP, Press, Arms etc, within one week.

This will effectively check the availability and attendance of the staff in their offices and penalise those who are found delinquent in their performance.

As part of the reforms agenda, RFID/Bio-Metric based attendance system has been deployed and made functional in Tarlai Revenue Centre on pilot basis. It shall be rolled out to all other revenue facilities within this month. This will effectively check the availability and attendance of revenue staff in their offices and penalize those who are found short on performance delivery.

Assistant Commissioners and concerned Magistrates have been deputed to remain available in Revenue Centres two days a week and manage their work from there to maintain effective check on the revenue officials and address any complaints at the spot.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, Amer Ali Ahmad, when contacted by this correspondent, averred that he would never cared about the hurdles being created on the way to reform. He said that the Land Revenue Record would definitely computerised as it was the part of the interior minister’s plan to root out corruption from the department. “It is expected that the record of entire district shall be made available online by January, 2014,” the DC concluded.