RAWALPINDI: The district administration will complete the digital Girdawari (crop inspection) in Rawalpindi district by Dec 15 to correct the land revenue record.

Besides, the procedure would also help check the real position of rural land, crops and structures in villages and avoid land grabbing cases.

A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that the digital Girdawari was being carried out for the first time in the province and so far more than 10 million mutation of property documents had been computerised through digital application.

He said digital Girdawari of 788 out of 1,058 villages in Rawalpindi district had been completed.

He said as per land revenue act, Girdawari was conducted twice in a year but due to change in Patwari system, it had not been carried out for the last few years.

He said during the Girdawari survey of the rural areas, the land revenue officials check the status of land, its crop production and how many tubewells had been installed. The survey also determines whether the land was used for commercial purposes.

He said in the absence of digital record, people had to face problems, specially during the distribution of land among legal heirs after the death of the owner, with the Patwari playing a crucial role.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali said a regular mobile application had been launched for digital Girdawari, which had been started on the direction of the Board of Revenue and was a result of special efforts of senior member revenue Babar Hayat Tarar.

He said they faced problems to get GPS location and picture on spot in Murree area where mobile phone signals dropped frequently. “But, we managed the things,” he added.

Mr Ali said it would eliminate corruption from the land revenue department and transparency would come in the registration and implementation of records of the land revenue department.

He said under the new system, pictures were being taken on the spot.

With this move, he said tampering with records would become practically impossible.

He said most of the work in Rawalpindi district had been completed by Nov 24.

He said the district gazetteer was also being published to collect updated and concise information of all tehsils, adding that mobile centres had been established for the provision of revenue services to the people of far-flung areas on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

After completing the survey, the deputy commissioner said the revenue court case management system would provide speedy justice, he said.

“Previously, the deputy commissioner would receive a complaint about land related issues and refer it to revenue officials (Patwari) and would seek a report about the land status and on the basis of the Patwari’s report he would take a decision. But the digitalisation has made things easier for deputy commissioner tocheck the record and decide the cases without any delay and involvement of patwari,” the deputy commissioner said.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2021