Process of the computerization of land-records to be sped up after stern directions by the Chief Minister of KPK, Mehmood Khan. He has directed the authorities to complete the computerization of land-records of Peshawar within the next three months. The Board of Revenue has already received the directions from CM office.

The CM has also directed the provincial administration to establish service-delivery centers at sub-divisional levels to ensure that the public gets easy access to all basic public services. He stressed the need that documents of property and land like the Fard are issued to the public in the minimum time frame.

The CM issued these directives while chairing a meeting to review the performance of Board of Revenue, according to a press release received by WealthPK.

The meeting was attended by the special assistant to the Chief Minister Taj Muhammad Tarand; MPA, Mian Sharafat Ali; Senior Member Board of Revenue, Zakir Hussain Afridi; Principal Secretary to CM, Amjad Ali Khan; Secretary Finance, Ikramullah Khan, and other concerned officials.

Board of Revenue officials told the meeting that the revenue department of the province had launched the first of its kind e-stamp paper initiative. It will improve the state of e-governance in the province. E-stamp paper will prevent land disputes, forgery of documents and the issuance of backdated stamp papers.

Besides, the initiative will also help in the determination of actual costs of land and minimize the administrative costs of printing stamp papers. It was further told that, for the first time in the history of the province, a Geographic Information System lab is being established to carry out GIS-based settlement of disputes in different districts of KPK.

The meeting was told that 48 service-delivery centers had already been established. 10 more will be established before the close of this year. Service-delivery centers had started to provide estate-related services to people through a one-window operation.

Fard is being issued from service-delivery centers within 30 minutes where digital technologies are available. In other centers which have not been digitized yet, Fard is issued within two days, the meeting was told.

State land had also been recovered from land mafia, the meeting was told. A total of 8,350 kanals of state land has been retrieved from land-grabbers the market value of which amounts to          PKR 118.344 billion. Female quota has also been introduced for hiring in the jobs of Patwari. 100 female Patwars have already graduated from the Patwar academy while the next batch of 120 Patwars has already been selected to be sent to the Patwar academy.

Draft bill for the establishment of Land Record Authority has been completed and the website of the Board of Revenue has also been launched for public information.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk