RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Board of Revenue (BoR) has fixed the December 30 deadline for the computerisation of land records in the Rawalpindi division, with the digitisation process in several districts said to be near completion.

Board of Revenue member Nabeel Javed visited the garrison city on Saturday to review the progress of this project and was briefed by respective deputy commissioners about the digitisation pace.

The meeting was informed that Talagang had managed to digitise 97 per cent followed by Attock with 92 per cent, Jhelum and Chakwal with shift 91 per cent, and Rawalpindi district with 85 per cent. The newly created district of Murree only digitised 76pc of the records. Talagang had managed to digitise the record of its 92 mouzas (villages) out of the total 95 while Attock completed the digitisation of 421 mouzas out of 455. Out of 595 mouzas in Jhelum, 542 have been digitised; whereas 329 mouzas out of 360 have been digitised in Chakwal. In Rawalpindi district, 898 mouzas out of 1,056 have been digitised, whereas in Murree 87 mouzas out of 114 have been digitised.

Murree lags with 76pc progress; BoR member seeks increase in rural land centres

About the resolution of blocked khewats (a term used for reference numbers given to landowners regarding specific land holdings), the meeting was informed that in 2019, a total of 95,766 khewats were blocked but 96pc of the issue had been resolved.

In Rawalpindi, 97pc, 100pc in Chakwal and Talagang, 99pc in Attock and Jhelum, and 38.3pc in Murree have been resolved.

A total of 3,064 khewats are still blocked in the Rawalpindi division: 1,732 in Murree, 791 in Attock, 509 in Rawalpindi, and 30 in Jhelum.

Lambardar, Chowkidara system

The senior member was informed that after the revival of the Lambardar and Chowkidara System in the province, 4,740 seats were allocated for Lambardars and only 253 were vacant. As many as 138 seats are vacant in Attock, 18 in Rawalpindi, four in Chakwal, two in Talagang, eight in Jhelum, and 83 seats in Murree.

BoR member Nabeel Javed said that the Punjab government wanted to increase the number of ‘Arazi Centres’ in the province and a fresh survey would be conducted to find suitable sites for these centres. He also directed the officials to speed up the work to lease out the agricultural land to farmers. Upon this, the deputy commissioners suggested increasing the lease from three years to 10-15 years to woo the farmers.

It was informed that the Rawalpindi administration tried to lease its 277 kanal in Taxila, but received no offers. The officials claimed it takes up to three years to prepare land in Potohar for farming which was the reason the farmers were hesitant to avail the offer.

It was informed the number of rural centre malls (land record centres) in the Rawalpindi division is 736 out of which 230 rural centre malls are in the Rawalpindi district.

The number of Patwar centres across the division is 550 and the number of Khasras in the division is 2.9 million.

Addressing the meeting, Nabeel Javed said that the number of rural land centres should be increased and their scope be widened through the establishment of the model land centres. “People should be facilitated regarding the revenue matters,” he said, directing officials to computerise the records by the end of this year.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2024