PESHAWAR, June 19: NWFP governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, and the provincial minister for revenue, excise and taxation have ordered inquiry against some Patwaris and other staff who have been accused of corruption, official sources said here on Tuesday.
The higher provincial authorities through different complaints, from Dera Ismail Khan and Mansehra districts, have been requested to take action against the patwaris and their subordinates for allegedly transferring in their names the resumed land which the federal land commission had allotted to landless peasants under the government’s land reforms scheme.
At least in two of the recently received complaints, the sources said, inquiries have been ordered - one each by the provincial governor and the provincial minister for excise and taxation.
A complainant from the Kulachi area in the southern Dera Ismail Khan district, has requested the provincial governor to take action against a serving and a retired patwari and their subordinates for allegedly depriving him of his land allotted to him by the federal land commission out of the resumed land.
Though the complaint had been made to the provincial governor in December, last, the case has yet to be finalized after, according to official sources and documents available with this scribe, the revenue staff of D.I.Khan district is using delaying tactics.
In this respect, the district-based staff is, apparently, trying to keep the facts of the case hidden from the provincial government’s authorities looking into the matter.
The detailed report sent to the Peshawar-based authorities concerned by the D.I. Khan district’s revenue staff, said the sources, had been sent back, recently, for the purpose of re- examining the same.
According to an official document available with this scribe, the district officer, revenue and estate/collector, D.I. Khan has been asked by the provincial government’s concerned authorities to re-examine the report sent to them for the report sent by the district authorities appeared to be “ambiguous and fishy”.
“It does not serve the purpose,” contained the official document in which the D.I.Khan district collector has been required to re-examine the report sent by him asking him” to state in clear words whether the revenue officials against whom allegations/charges have been made by the applicant, have actually been blessed with the grant of resumed land or not”.
An identical complaint has recently been made to the provincial minister for revenue, excise and taxation from the Mansehra district of the NWFP.
A complainant from village Bajna, Mansehra district, has requested the government to take action against the staff concerned for depriving him of his land by making illegal changes in the revenue and land record.
The inquiry, said the sources, in this particular case was also in process, but at a snail’s pace.