KARACHI, Aug 24: The Sindh Revenue Minister, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, has said the Sindh government will regularize 25,779 villages of the province in the second week of October and grant ownership rights to occupants.

He said this at a high-level meeting held at his office on Tuesday, adding that regularization of villages in interior Sindh would start from October, and of those in Karachi from November.

It was decided to introduce micro-filming process for further organising the computerised system, while the record of Gothabad scheme would be subjected to scanning. The meeting was informed that consultants would soon be appointed for computerisation of record and micro-filming.

A decision was also taken for computerising the revenue record of five more districts of Shikarpur, Tharparkar, Nawabshah, Dadu and Jacobabad, besides of five towns of Karachi - Keamari, Gadap, Bin Qasim, Malir, and Baldia.

The meeting was told that teams had been formed under the head of project director, Gothabad scheme, for regularization of villages of Sindh. These teams, would submit their reports within a month.

During the meeting, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh directed that all related matters be finalized before the kharif season. He said that open kutcheries would be organised throughout Sindh to check irregularities in the revenue record.

It was also decided that teams would be formed under the supervision of senior member of the Board of Revenue to check illegal occupation of state land and constructions.

Meanwhile, speaking at a workshop at a local hotel, Sindh Revenue Minister Imtiaz Shaikh said that social work was very much needed in the city and every individual was stressed to play his role to reduce the sufferings of humanity.

The one-day training workshop on "Infectious Diseases" was organized by the Help International Welfare Trust. Mr Imtiaz said that NGOs should continue organizing such programmes to create awareness among the masses about infectious diseases.

He lauded the efforts of the Trust and extended full government support to social work. Earlier, Syed Arif Ali of the Trust said they were celebrating this year with the slogan "Create awareness among the masses about infectious diseases", adding that efforts were being made to promote health and education.

Mr Arif also said that two of their projects were in the pipeline including the establishment of a blood bank and an eye hospital. - APP/PPI