GUJRAT: The Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) has ‘ignored’ two major urban centres -- Lalamusa and Jalalpur Jattan -- in terms of establishing fard (property ownership document) booths as three such centres have become operational in relatively small towns such as Kunjah, Dinga and Kolta of the Gujrat district.

The purpose to set up such booths in semi-rural and semi-urban localities is said to be doing away with the rush of clients at the Computerised Land Record Centres (CLRCs).

The new fard centres have been established in the aforementioned small towns; however Jalalpur Jattan and Lalamusa that are considered the largest towns after Gujrat city are yet to get this facility despite demands by people of the two towns.

Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa said initially the PLRA had established three CLRCs at tehsil headquarter level in Gujrat, Kharian and Sara-i-Alamgir a few years ago but the centres had witnessed a record rush of the clients for the last almost one year due to which the authority had been requested to widen its scope by establishing [at least] booth centres in semi-urban and semi-rural areas.

Fard booths set up in relatively small towns

He said fard booth for Jalalpur Jattan had also been approved and it would become functional within a few weeks whereas two buildings were being constructed in Gujrat and Kharian for CLRCs that would be shifted from the existing makeshift buildings.

Arfan Ahmed Safi a former union council nazim from Lalamusa, said the people of his city had been demanding such a facilitation centre since long. But it seemed the centre was not on the priority list of the authorities concerned, highlighting the least interest of the ruling party’s lawmakers from the area.

Adding he said the Kotla town comprised only a union council whereas Lalamusa had been a municipal committee which consisted of four UCs until 2015 and now divided into 24 wards.

He deplored that instead of setting up the booth in Lalamusa the authorities had provided such a facility to Kotla Arab Ali Khan perhaps under pressure from an influential political group.

It merits mentioning that the ruling PML-N’s lawmakers, including MNA Abid Raza, MPA Shabeer Ahmed and Chaudhry Tanveer, the district council chairman of Gujrat, hail from Kotla and are brothers, who are considered politically influential figures.

Syed Faisal Abbas, a PTI leader from Jalalpur Jattan, also lodged a strong protest against non-establishment of fard booth in the town that was surrounded by hundreds of villages as well as smaller towns such as Tanda, Karianwala and Fatehpur. He demanded that the authorities take measures to complete arrangements for a booth in Jalalpur Jattan,

An official of the land revenue department said the issue in Jalalpur Jattan was that the authorities could [so far] not find any government building to establish fard booth as these facilities could only be set up in official buildings.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2018