HYDERABAD, Nov 29: Sindh Revenue Minister Dr. Irfan Gul Magsi said on Wednesday that the revenue department would regularise around 6,659 villages and issue them ‘sanads’ (ownership certificates) in January next year.

A total of 1,310 villages in Tharparkar, 1,050 in Naushahro Feroze, 828 in Shikarpur, 1,276 in Jacobabad and 2,195 in (undivided) Hyderabad districts that were surveyed by the department in 1980 would get their sanads in the first week of January.

The process of sanads’ issuance had been suspended in 1996, he said while addressing a press conference. Senior member of the Board of Revenue Syed Anwar Hyder was present on the occasion. Other villages regularised as per survey would also get their sanads and Mukhtiarkar Estate would look after their regularisation, the minister said.

The government had issued minimum rates of property in different areas of the province to avoid the practice of getting an expensive property registered with cheap rate, he said.

He said that the department would computerise its registration and stamps section and set up its central office in Karachi to stop fraudulent entries and interpolation of record. The section was instrumental in contributing Rs4.5 billion to the provincial kitty of Rs13 billion, he informed.

The section affixed stamps and registered 86 different kinds of documents, he said, adding that in the current fiscal year 265,000 documents had so far been computerised and 170,000 documents had been registered in 2003-04 at an average of 833 documents per day.

He informed that the stamps and registration section had not yet been devolved and it was still administered by provincial government. A 350 square yards sub-registrar office was being set up in each district of the province to computerise all the revenue record relating to stamps and registration, he said.

Mr Magsi said that central computerisation office would be established in Karachi, which would be inaugurated by chief minister followed by computerisation of sub-registrar’s offices in other parts of the province.

“Revenue department possesses 200-year-old record of Kalhoro and British eras and the new initiatives will greatly help in preserving them,” he said.

About the land dispute between Petaro Cadet College and Safar Khaskheli village in Jamshoro, he said that a preliminary report had been submitted to the chief minister but a final report was still being awaited.

The department detected 11,000 acres of bogus entries in just 20 days in Jamshoro alone, he said, adding that the boundary walls constructed around the pieces of lands off Super Highway in 18 different cases were either illegal or disputed.

He said that the department would soon launch an operation with the help of district administration and police to demolish the illegal structures which also included petrol pumps and hotels.

He said that out of the 11,000 bogus entries ownership of 1,200 acres had already been cancelled and the officers involved in the fraud would be taken to task. “Indeed, such bogus entries cannot be made by revenue officials without political influence,” he admitted.