LAHORE, Sept 20: The Punjab government will have access to computerized record of NADRA to verify particulars of citizens to check crime and preparation of bogus documents.

The announcement to this effect was made at a meeting regarding computerization of public record and monitoring of development projects with the help of information technology here on Saturday.

The meeting was informed that the government had already talked to NADRA regarding the transfer of record. The particulars of people applying for different government licences would be verified through the NADRA website, it was stated.

Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who presided over the meeting, said the availability of NADRA record would help quickly verify particulars of people, preventing fraud and assisting in detecting criminals.

Project Management Unit: The meeting was informed that the Project Management Unit (PMU) had been created.

The unit would give technical advice to the managers of all projects in the province and monitor their implementation afterwards.

At present, projects were being designed by various departments without any technical know-how. These projects were normally returned by the P&D with technical objections, delaying their implementation.

The new unit would provide technical guidance to the project directors of all departments so that these were not rejected by the P&D.

The unit would also develop a computerized network of all projects with the help of the information technology department for the systematic monitoring of all projects. Even the chief minister would be able to check implementation stage of a small project in a remote town on his computer, the meeting was informed.

Sources said Dr Khalid Khan, an information technology and management expert, was likely to be made head of the unit.

The chief minister said project directors of all departments would be bound to give a detailed report of the implementation stage of their projects to the unit. They would also be required to complete the projects within the stipulated timeframe, he said.

He said a plan had been devised to computerize land revenue, driving and weapons licences record of all districts in the province. Al the departments issuing public documents would be linked to NADRA for verification of record of people, he said.

The chief minister directed the information technology department to create a modern communication network at the level of province, district and tehsil. He hoped that the computerization of the government working would help improve performance and financial management of all government departments.