LAHORE, Jan 6: Land measuring 395,576 acres is under the use of armed forces in Punjab for  cultivation, dairy farming and other activities and the military, not the Punjab government, is holding/maintaining record relating to the income and expenditures in this regard.

“As per the land record available with us, land measuring 395,576 acres, five kanal and 16 marla is being used by armed forces for various works. This land includes 7,287 acres being used by military in Bahawalpur, 5,217 acres in Kasur and 6,780acres in Bahawalnagar,” Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told the Punjab Assembly on Friday while responding to a question submitted by MPA Nighat Nasir Sheikh.

On another question, the law minister said that in the border areas the land situated within a radius of five miles was supposedto be transferred to the military and the GHQ, and that the Punjab government was not the allotting authority of such land.

The question-answer session remained hot on the issue of corruption, recruitment criterion for patwaris and their training courses with a view to end their alleged corruption by building their capacity while dealing with land-related issues.

The minister on a question admitted the fact of corruption being committed allegedly by patwaris. “Though we are facing a shortage of 1,419 patwaris (45 per cent shortage) across the province, we are not making recruitment because of the on-going efforts to computerise the entire land record system,” he added.

When asked by opposition member Dr Samia Amjad that how the government was running this important department despite severe shortage of patwaris, the law minister said actually the revenue department had moved a summary to the CM abouttwo years before in this regard. “But the CM didn’t accord approval to recruit patwaris. The government wants to make the system transparent by recruiting educated and skilled people on such important seats in order to make this system modernised through computerisation,” he explained.

When pointed out that since 1996, the government neither arranged the required patwar training course (mandatory for the recruitment of patwaris) nor made any recruitment in this regard, Rana Sana admitted the fact, but continued supporting the government’s stance on this issue.

Responding to another question, the minister said the Punjab government was not supporting the corrupt patwaris and rather it was taking action against such officials through the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and the Board of Revenue.He said though according to law every employee, including patwari, was liable to be transferred after three years, the government could extend their stay period by keeping in view the public interest.

The minister on a question told the house that the government lacked sufficient financial resources to establish Disaster Management Authority at the district level. “We are actively running the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) led by its DG Khalid Sher Dil. This team has even contributed its services during recent floods in Sindh,” he claimed.

The speaker disposed of various questions already raised by various legislatures because of their absence in the session.