Illegal land allotment to be cancelled: minister

[LahoreEstate]

Friday, March 06, 2009
By our correspondent

HYDERABAD: Sindh Minister for Revenue and Relief Saifullah Dharejo has said thousands of acres of government land allotted to influential persons by the previous government would be cancelled and action would be taken against Revenue officers who had facilitated this illegal transaction.

He said this while talking to media persons at the Tapedari Training College, Hyderabad, on Thursday. He warned revenue officers to avoid malpractices, failing which strict action would be taken against them.

To a question, the minister said 26,000 acres of government land was provided to the Alternate Energy Board in district Thatta for the establishment of their projects but after the passage of many years, the land had not been utilised.

However, he made it clear that the government had now decided to take all the allotted land back from the government institutions or other organisations in case they failed to utilise it. Saifullah said inquiries against the illegal allotment and grabbers of government land had been initiated at various places. The DDO (Revenue) and Mukhtiarkar Thana Bula Khan have been suspended for their alleged involvement in illegal transaction of the government land, he said.

He said since the economy of Sindh was based on agriculture, the Revenue department played an important role in its socio-economic development. He said in view of the importance of the Revenue department, the provincial government had planned to modernise it for maintaining the record of the rights and recovery of the Revenue taxes.

He said it was the PPP government that had not only provided training to 270 Tapedars purely on merit but had also reopened and revamped the Tapedari Training College, Hyderabad, after its closure more than 10 years ago.

He said the government had approved a PC-I at a cost of Rs 60 million to upgrade the Tapedari College by introducing computer system for the survey of land. Referring to the common complaints about corruption in the department, the minister said the devolution system of the government introduced by the previous regime had strengthened the roots of corruption.

He also criticised the demarcation of revenue limits, carving out of new districts and bifurcation of different Revenue units and said this had been made by the previous government to serve its political interests. He said the PPP had decided to review all such decisions and undo the same with the consultation of coalition partners.

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