LAHORE: Local administration has intensified efforts to reactivate the Lambardari system in a bid to improve revenue collection, service delivery and resolve petty issues within territorial limits of the Lahore City District, seeking recommendations from all five assistant commissioners of Lahore with regard to filling the vacant posts of lambardars (village headmen), and assigning jobs (with some change to the job description as per current needs) to them under the relevant rules and regulations, Dawn has learnt.

“The work on reactivating the system in Lahore has been accelerated [and] we, in a recent meeting, directed the Lahore commissioner to improve revenue collection and delivery of services through village headmen and others concerned. Hopefully, they (the officers concerned) will take keen interest in this regard,” Board of Revenue (BoR) Senior Member/Punjab Chief Commissioner (relief) Mr Nabeel Javed told Dawn on Saturday.

“We are also going to revamp the Chokidari [watchman] system in Lahore and other parts of Punjab,” Mr Nabeel revealed.

Under the Land Revenue Rules-1968, the duties assigned to the village headmen under the law have been explained. The rules state that the headmen will “collect, by due date, the land revenue and all sums recoverable as land revenue from the estate, or subdivision of any estate in which he holds office, and pay the same personally or by revenue money order or by remittance of currency notes through the post or at place where treasury business is conducted by the State Bank of Pakistan, or any other bank, by cheque, on a local bank, at the place and time appointed in that behalf, to the tehsildar concerned.

DC says job description of headmen needs to be updated

“The headmen are supposed to collect rents and other income of the common land and account for these to the persons entitled thereto and issue receipts to the land owners and others through Form-1 in token of having recovered the government dues from them. Under the rules, the government is liable to appoint a sufficient number of headmen in every estate and this number, when once fixed, shall not be increased or reduced except by or under the orders of commissioner.”

The BoR chief said: “There are various taxes, fees etc liable to be collected by the Lambradars and other revenue officials. These include Agriculture income tax, Abiana (charges related to water supply to agriculture land, irrigation etc), stamp duty and mutation fee. We are also set to introduce an online system (called E-Abiana) for the collection of water charges.”

He added that the activation of Lambardari system will also help improve service delivery and resolve various petty local issues arising in villages.

According to a letter written to the ACs of Lahore City, Raiwind, Cantonment, Model Town and Shalimar tehsils, the city administration has sought information regarding vacancies of Lambardars for creation of a comprehensive database and fresh recruitment against the vacant posts.

As per the administration the total sanctioned posts of headmen in Lahore are 406 that included four in Lahore City, 91 in Raiwind, 147 in Lahore Cantt, 72 in Model Town and 92 in Model Town tehsils. Of these, 207 headmen are permanent, while 64 are temporary, while 135 posts are yet to be filled.

“You are requested to send proposals/recommendations for appointment of suitable candidates against the vacant posts of Lambardars under Rule 17 of the Punjab Land Record Rules 1968,” the letter written by the additional deputy commissioner (revenue) to the ACs says.

Talking to Dawn, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Ms Rafia Haider said the Lambardari system in Lahore has almost become non-functional because of speedy urbanisation. She is of the view that since Lahore’s most parts are urban now, the system also needs to be updated through introducing changes in the job description of these headmen.

“There are many villages in Lahore that, currently, have been converted into urban areas. So, keeping in view this factor, the job description of a headman — the last tier of the revenue department — needs to be changed considering the public issues,” she said.

She said once she received recommendations from the ACs, she would not only ensure appointment of headmen on all vacant posts, but also make working of these officials beneficial to the public at large, as well as the government.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2023