MULTAN: The Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) has launched its Express Counter at the Arazi Record Centre (ACR) here.

A press release issued here on Sunday stated that pre-booking space at the record centre would save time and hassle for people.

The Express Counters are being launched at divisional level in Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Rawalpindi and Sahiwal.

It stated that to avail the services from Express Counters, people could the Punjab Land Record Authority helpline to obtain an advance booking. The time to obtain land ownership document and initiate transfer procedure was going to be the same. For obtaining an ownership deed through these counters, processing fees would be Rs1,500 and for transfer Rs5,000. Both amounts would be in addition to the existing charges, it added.

As per the procedure, a person will appear before the land record assistant director or land record officer at the pre-booked time. The officer concerned will proceed with the issuance of ownership document or transfer.

The PLRA has signed an agreement with the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) under which 3,700 e-Sahulat Centres of Nadra around the province could also issue ownership documents for record. This could help over 80 per cent of the visitors and the load of visitors would be shared with land record centres across the province.

It further stated that the PLRA had centralised the entire land record data from 152 land record centres to its central database in Lahore.

“Further ensuring safety of the record, a back-up storage facility has also been established in Islamabad where the entire data has been stored. The centralisation not only protects the record, but also right of ownership of the people,” the statement added.

PLRA Director General Ayesha Hameed was quoted as saying that centralisation of land record data had further secured the system.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2018