TAXILA: A multi-billion rupee scam involving the illegal transfer of around a thousand kanals of land has surfaced in the Taxila revenue department, in which land grabbers allegedly collaborated with some officials to transfer the Shamilat Deh and land for pasture to their names by tampering with land records.

The doctored records were detected in the Lub Thatto union council, which consists mostly of rural areas with uncultivated land. The union council is located near Taxila tehsil’s borders with Attock district and Haripur district.

Assistant Commissioner Dr Usman Tariq audited the union council’s land records and found that around a thousand kanals of public utility land, which cannot be usurped for private use by any individual, worth billions of rupees had been transferred to various individuals as inherited family land allegedly by revenue department officials, particularly revenue clerks (known as patwaris) after they received illegal gratification from the concerned individuals.

“The multi-billion rupee scam has been brought to the notice of the concerned higher authorities in the district administration and provincial revenue department so departmental action can be taken against the officials involved,” Dr Tariq told the media on Tuesday.

He claimed that officials from the local revenue department, particularly revenue clerks, held a pen-down strike at the tehsil revenue office and sub-offices in Wah, Taxila and various union councils to mount pressure on the local administration and avert any departmental action.

He added that the official log of the Brahma revenue department, which was recovered by the police from an individual “who runs a gang involved in the illegal occupation of land and properties of people in various areas by tampering with official revenue records” is also being investigated.

He said the recovery of sensitive land records from a private individual with a bad reputation was a question on the affairs of the revenue department, which would be investigated accordingly.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2019