AS Punjab moves to computerise its land records under a World Bank sponsored project — Land Records Management and Information System — one can only hope that it benefits the province and its people as much as such exercises have done to the other parts of the world.

Under almost Rs10 billion project, the province seeks to computerise record of around 52 million land-owning families in its 36 districts. If the latest figures of the Board of Revenue are to be believed, it has taken proverbial first step in its thousand mile journey: 545 villages have been computerised and 25 LRMIS centers set up to facilitate farmers.

Initially to be implemented in only half of districts, the scope has now been expanded  to the entire Punjab as the World Bank committed additional Rs7.5 billion for completion of the project. It is something that Punjab should have done long ago, because of social and economic cost of confusion in its land record. Even now, one prays that Punjab does lose steam mid-way.

The project would bring transparency in land record and block corruption pipeline right from patwari (the lowest rung of the revenue bureaucracy) upwards, which feeds the entire system. Land deeds, records and mutation have been among the major sources of exploitation by the revenue officials.

The manual land record system has been the major source of property-related disputes and litigation in the province, which, in turn, had overburdened the entire legal system. The extent of it overloading legal system forced the Supreme Court to order computerisation of land record.

Punjab has already amended its Land Revenue Act of 1967 for the purpose, and the LRMIS would withdraw two main functions from the patwari, which are: issuance of copies of, or extracts from, the revenue record and entertainment of mutations. Both of them will go to the computerised service centres being set up for the purpose.

At these centers, only a limited number of employees, with properly recorded bio-metrics, would be allowed to enter into the system. It will prevent  rigging in the land records.

In the other parts of the world, the system has brought immense social and financial benefits to the societies. For example, it has facilitated formal sector into agriculture lending. The banks are given a limited access to the record, which formalised the collateral and made lending easy and transparent.

At present, the entire record is a suspect as banking collateral, deterring the banks and other formal lenders. The lending gap is then filled by the middleman, who not only charges an exorbitant interest rate but also holds veto on sale-purchase of the crop. Once all vital documents are secured in computer, the induction of formal sector would not only facilitate lending but also help document the national economy.

In other parts of the world, such an exercise has also helped develop a land market, where sale and purchase become easier, transparent and investment on land worthy of money. At present, if an investor wants to purchase, say 1,000 acres, of land. He may not be able to find such a piece of land as the entire record is in the possession of someone who would not allow even basic information without some cost. If one is able to find such a piece of land, the mutation process may take years, if not decades.

That is exactly where the new system fits in by altering the entire system — quick viewing of record, sale and mutation. Since only a limited number of people are allowed into the system, after proper reading of bio-metrics, any rigging could be traced right back to the defaulter even after decades.

The biggest missing link in the Punjab agriculture planning has been accurate land data for planning purposes.

Even total provincial acreage has been a matter of debate, and even dispute, among different agencies — leave alone planning on them. It is almost impossible for the current revenue and agriculture bureaucracy to document soil types, irrigation facilities and cropping pattern for the planning.

In the absence of such data, the entire planning is based on empirical data and faulty field studies, which bring more confusion than clarity in the system. The Punjab has deputed over 35,000 employees for such seasonal studies  and data collection, and has still not been able get its digits right.

Once it is able to get its land record straight, it would be easier for it to create institutional linkages to the soil.

Provincial finance department, judiciary, international lenders, NGOs and different development agencies etc need accurate data for planning, which has been missing so far.

Manual handling, vulnerability to rigging and discretion in traditional land record keeping has helped create land mafias in the province. Once local patwari is on board, the rest become easier for anyone. It has thrown many farming families out of the agriculture system and added to poverty and social chaos.

The quick urban expansion led to mushrooming of land mafias in the last one decade, which created speculative pressure on market and punctured the bubble within a few years to leave hundreds of thousands of investors penny less. All this was possible only for land record being manipulative.

It is not to argue that the new system would be a panacea for all land-related problems. It would, however, certainly bring a paradigm shift when everyone is able to access his/her land record online and get a copy of it too, without greasing some palms.