Punjab to Officially Launch New Land Record System by January

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government is establishing a new land record system, despite the digitization of revenue records for 460 mouzas (villages) in the Rawalpindi district remaining incomplete.

The Board of Revenue (BoR) has requested in writing to the deputy commissioner that the scanning of “Massavi” (details of land ownership) be finished by January 9 so that it could be checked by a team visiting the district headquarters, before the launch of the new land record system.

The BoR director reportedly stated in the letter that the new “Punjab Urban Land System Enhancement” project was being developed for implementation by the board with support from the World Bank (WB),

The new system called for the digital mapping of every Khasra to replace the conventional manual land maintenance method.

Furthermore, BoR is planning to create a land repository development exercise based on a Geographic Information System (GIS).

The letter said that the availability of data and information on land records is crucial for the conversion of traditionally kept manual accounting for land records to the digital format.

The sources claimed that the majority of the Massavi maps that had been scanned were already accessible with BoR, but they did not provide a comprehensive view of the region to facilitate the digital system.

Additionally, the teams would visit the sites on January 9 to collect the Massavi maps, therefore the director requested the land revenue authorities to stockpile them on the office grounds and cross-check the entries.

In traditional columns of Khasra, Khyut, Khatuni, and other land record designations, reports claim that the government has planned to allocate a new property numbering system.

The sources said that the BoR member Zahid Akhtar Zaman visited Rawalpindi last month and notified the district and divisional administration about the project.

Similarly, the problems with property distribution and inheritance will also be resolved under the plan, said the member BoR.

According to a senior BoR official, this digitization project would ensure that the land record is correctly kept from the first owner to the last and will help the government streamline the land revenue system.

He claimed that a separate cell had been established in the commissioner’s office to receive public complaints to avoid needless delays in the resolution of land-related disputes.