THATTA, Nov 6: The Small Growers Association (SGA), while taking notice of the recent officially notified facts about submerging of over 1.2 million acres of fertile agricultural land by sea water in the Thatta and Badin coastal belt within a few decades, demanded that the Deh maps of the district be revised and updated soon.

Through a signed representation, dispatched to all concerned, the office bearers of the association said Deh was a basic administrative unit of land used for management, ownership delineation, revenue collection, etc.

The revenue department and the British government had printed the Deh maps of Sindh in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and their original prints were still lying in Pune, India.

Since then, these maps had not been updated except the alteration of survey numbers.

During the last century, several structures such as canals, roads, bridges, power lines, buildings, communication towers, etc., had been constructed in the province and the Indus river had also changed its course but the maps had not been revised. Besides, many of the reference points mentioned in the maps — such as watercourses, graveyards, police stations, etc. — no more exist.

Therefore, survey teams could hardly locate these reference points while trying to demarcate disputed land as a result of which innumerable land dispute cases were pending in the courts concerned.

The SGA pointed out that new information technology like Geographical Information System, Global Positioning System, Management Information Systems, Satellite Imageries, etc. had been developed. By adopting some of the above technologies, the government could easily update important revenue records and Deh maps.

Organizations such as Suparco has the expertise, infrastructure, and access to satellite imagery and could update these maps, which will facilitate in solving most of the land-related disputes between the parties concerned and the government.

The signatories said that the board of revenue, the government of Sindh, and the district Nazim, Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah Shirazi, might consider this important issue in the best interest of the public in general and the government in particular.