OVER the years, computerisation of land records has emerged as the key measure to curtail the widespread tampering with the records and ensure transparency in land deals. Yet, the progress on this project, though noticeable, is slow.

A year ago, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had directed all the provinces to computerise land records while hearing a suo motu case regarding corruption in the provincial revenue departments. On May 30 this year, the court praised the efforts of Punjab and Sindh, while hearing a land reforms case, for having done a ‘big task’ in this regard, but pointed out that more efforts are needed to complete the project in a befitting manner. The chief justice had earlier suggested that the computerisation work should start from areas which are under the hold of feudals and landlords.

However, the pace of computerisation work on the whole remains slow because of proverbial inefficiency in government departments and insufficient allocation of funds. Another reason is the resistance from the community of patwaris who, while being low-level functionaries of revenue department, play a key role in assessing agricultural income, collecting revenue, recording the inheritance, sale and transfer of land, and maintaining all land records in their area of jurisdiction. Computerisation will weaken, even eliminate, their monopoly over such precious information and their ability to distort facts.

During the proceedings, the Chief Justice was supportive of the computerisation project and offered his assistance in removing hurdles in the way. The manager of the Punjab project informed the court that till now 40 facilitation centres out of 137 planned have been completed and they have started computerising the land records in their areas. The whole process in Punjab will be complete by June 2015.

Sindh’s project manager told the court, areas under three facilitation centres would be computerised by August. He said if the required funds were made available to him, the whole project would be complete by June 2014. On this, the CJ offered the court’s help in getting funds for the completion of the project and removing bottlenecks, if any, through the advocate-general, Sindh. The CJ asked if they needed any kind of legislation in the Land Revenue Act or any other relevant law. The manager replied in negative, but the bench stated that they have to amend relevant provisions of the law to remove ambiguities as has been done by the Punjab.

Last month, the Punjab government also reviewed the pace of progress of the computerisation project called land record management and information system. The project which was started in 18 districts has now been extended to 36 districts. The meeting was informed that contracts for data entry have been given in all districts. The entry process has been completed in eight districts while 75 per cent work has been completed in five others. Sindh has also set up a similar body called Land Administration and Revenue Management Information System (LARMIS).

In Pakistan, a computerisation project was first initiated in 2007 in Punjab where manipulations in land records are extremely high. However, the first Land Record Management Information System (LRMIS) service centre started functioning in Lahore on June 18, 2012. At such centres to be opened in all districts of the province, officials say customers will be offered to obtain fard malkiyat and other relevant documents within 30 minutes. Also, transfer of a property (with verification) can be done within 50 minutes. The computerisation of land record is imperative because a computerised data base with central repository ensures the efficacy of the revenue records, enhances the value of properties and also protect the property rights of people.

In Pakistan, the deputy commissioner is responsible for maintenance of land records in the district. To achieve this, he takes help of patwaris in addition to district officials. A patwari is responsible for two to four villages, depending on their size and maintains the records of a person’s record of rights, register of mutations, crop output, shajra nasb, field maps, field measurement book and daily journal. This exercise of keeping and updating records is quite strenuous and, as a result, provides room for manipulation and tampering. Besides, the patwari still carries a cloth with land records mapped on it. The accuracy of land measured on it over the centuries, it is believed, remained unchanged.

To make use of this knowledge, India has introduced a Patwari Information System (PATIS). A team of highly qualified technology experts was deputed to gain the basic knowledge of reading the records firsthand. Software engineers and system analysts were trained to function as patwaris. The main feature of this information system solution is the integrated approach adopted by connecting various offices and integrating their data in a centralised data warehouse.

A 2010 report of the International Crisis Group holds provincial revenue departments responsible for lack of effective checks on the patwari, and observes that the departments generally “lack both the will and the resources to hold the patwari accountable because the revenue departments themselves are corrupt to the core”.

The report considers patwaris as the main culprits for the failure of 1973 land reforms. In most cases, at the behest of landowners, he never informed tenants that reforms had taken place and that their status has changed. And the peasants continued to work on their fields as before, without knowing they had become the owners of their farms. —Ashfak Bokhari