GUJRAT: The computerised land record centres in Gujrat, Kharian and Sara-i-Alamgir are unable to cater to the requirements of the growing number of litigants.

The land record of 827 villages in the district has been computerised and 58 more villages are scanned but yet to be notified as online. After necessary verifications by the Board of Revenue (BoR) authorities, the data are being loaded in the online system.

In Gujrat tehsil, 414 of the 540 villages have been made operational, while 335 of the 433 villages of Kharian and 78 of the 111 villages of Sara-i-Alamgir have been uploaded.

Gujrat is one of the districts where the computerisation of land record had been made as a pilot project but the process had been delayed. The BoR had established three separate land record centres for the entry of the mutations or registration of the ownership deeds of property as well as issuance of the computerised ownership document (Fard Malkiat) a few months ago.

Since 83pc of the villages are now computerised, these land record centres are witnessing a sharp increase in the number of litigants but few counters are not enough to entertain the litigants. The administration of these centres have sought the extension especially of Gujrat and Kharian centres to cater the requirements.

The DCO had a few weeks ago paid visits to these centres and agreed in principle for the extension project and according to a senior official at Gujrat centre, the district government has recommended at least 18 more counters (in addition to the existing eight) at Gujrat centre besides establishing a proper waiting area. He said many more counters were required at Kharian centre.

The land record of at least 27 revenue estates falling in the urban areas of the district such as the towns of Gujrat, Jalalpur Jattan, Kharian and Sara-i-Alamgir will not be computerised since the Punjab government had excluded the urban areas from the project.

A revenue official said the provincial government had a plan to launch a separate project for the computerisation of the urban areas’ land record at a later stage.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2015

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