GUJRAT: Punjab law minister Raja Basharat has convened a special meeting of all the stakeholders in the backdrop of ongoing strike of Punjab land Record Authority (PLRA) field staff at the Arazi Record Centres (ARCs) across the province.

The meeting to be held in the services and general administration department (S&GAD) on Friday (today) at around 2pm will discuss steps to resolve the issues being faced by the protesting field staff.

The Punjab minister for land revenue Malik Anwar, senior member board of revenue, secretaries of finance, services and regulations and law departments, PLRA chairman and director general and representatives of the protesting field staff will participate in the meeting.

The field staffers had been staging a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly in Lahore for the last 12 days for pay raise, service structure and job regularisation etc.

The PLRA authorities have also not withdrawn the notifications of terminating services of at least five ARC officials and the notices issued to some 30 others despite the instructions of the Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi on Wednesday, after a meeting with the representatives of the field staff, to withdraw all the actions taken against the protesting staff.

Alternative staff posted at ARCs

Meanwhile, the district administration on Thursday resumed the services at all three ARCs in the district -- Gujrat, Kharian and Sara I Alamgir tehsils -- by appointing computer literate staff of the land revenue department there.

The ARCs had been rendered dysfunctional across the province because of the strike by the PLRA field staff, causing problems for the farmers, realtors, businessmen etc who had to visit the centres with regard to various land related matters.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Khurram Shahzad said that some computer operators and patwaris who had been given a short training in Lahore to operate the software, were now appointed at the three ARCs in the district.

He said services have been resumed at the ARCs in the larger public interest to cope with the situation emerging after the strike.

Later, DC, along with Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Dr Rani Hafsa Kanwal, Gujrat Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Jameel and other staff visited the Gujrat ARC and inspected the work. He also took feedback from some visitors about the resumption of services.

The DC said the newly-appointed staff would provide the services like issuance of Fard and mutations.

On the other hand, the PLRA field staff association has termed the act of appointing the officials at the ARCs a violation of law.

A senior official of the association told Dawn that after being recruited as the service center official (SCO) an employee was usually given at least 40-day training to run the software, wondering how only the one-day training could enable the alternative staff to do the job.

SIALKOT: Twelve patwaris on Thursday started performing their duties at the ARCs, three each in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils.

The Punjab government has appointed as many as 2,000 patwaris at 152 ARCs across the province to run the centres in the absence of the striking staffers.

Our Sialkot Correspondent also contriubuted to this report

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2019