GUJRAT: The Punjab Board of Revenue has excluded at least 26 revenue estates (mawazayat) of Gujrat from the ongoing settlement of land revenue record of the district.

The district revenue department had sought exclusion of these estates that either fell under the remits of various municipal committees or were located in suburbs of these municipalities.

The district had been undergoing settlement for over a decade and now the provincial government had set June 30 as deadline for completion of the process. Settlement of land revenue record of some 900 out of 1,050 villages of the district had been completed so far. The remaining were said to be bigger in terms of land. However, the move initiated by settlement officials worked for them as exclusion of these areas would decrease work load.

The excluded estates were complete areas of major cities of the district, including the district headquarters of Gujrat city, Jalalpur Jattan, Kunjah, Shadiwal, three of Sara-i-Alamgir tehsil and one of Kharian tehsil. With the exclusion of 22 revenue estates of Gujrat tehsil only 75 had been left for settlement as the tehsil consisted of 540 villages.

However, the revenue department would have to prepare the periodical register (jama bandi) of the 26 estates that had been skipped from settlement. As per rules, the periodical record of each estate had to be updated after every four years. Gujrat had been under settlement for long and there was no maintenance of the periodical record since 2001.

Official sources said all affairs and field staff of the land revenue department posted in the excluded 26 revenue estates would now be put under supervision of assistant commissioner concerned of that tehsil as well as the additional district collector rather than the district settlement officer.

Extra Assistant Settlement Officer Waqar Khan Gadhi said since the land located in urban and semi-urban localities was hard to measure by revenue staff due to massive construction and stretching of population, the settlement officer had formally lodged a request with the Board of Revenue to exclude the revenue estates falling within the jurisdiction of urban centres.

He confirmed that the Punjab Board of Revenue had issued a notification of excluding these estates.