LAHORE: The Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) has approved provision of universal access to all Land Record Centers in Punjab for the convenience of citizens, Pakistan Today learnt here on Wednesday.
Ali Raza Butter, an official of PLRA, informed this scribe that this access will help people to get land documents [Fard] in future and this service will also save time and travel.
“In fact, the main purpose of this facility is that a person who resides in Lahore and owns land in Jahanian will no longer have to go to Jahanian to get his land documents; instead, he or she will get these documents from the Land Record Center in Lahore or from any center in Punjab”.
“The fee set by the authority for the acquisition of Fard is RS 500 and it has not yet been decided how much fee the beneficiaries of universal access will pay as only the access to this service has been approved so far, however, when this service will be launched, there will definitely be various formalities regarding its fees and paperwork,” he informed.
Butter further informed that Chairman PLRA Sardar Ahmad Ali Khan Dareshak has also approved the service structure for the staff of the authority.
On the other hand, another PLR official, speaking on condition of anonymity, informed that the approval of the service structure was a very unilateral decision in which nothing was decided for the welfare of the staff.
“We have staged several protests on the roads for the approval of the service structure and the purpose of these protests was to build our service structure and regularization of staff.
But in the service structure approved by the chairman, the authority wants staff to work on a three-year contract and then re-enter the contract. That is, the employees of the authority have to work on contract till the age of retirement. In addition, the service structure does not mention any pensions, nor does it guarantee job security,” he said.
Another PLRA official informed that the decision was taken by the board of the authority deliberately to ensure the eradication of Patwari culture.
“Despite the modern-style authority and its modern system, the eradication of corruption has not yet been ensured especially the staff posted at the Land Record Centers are still dealing with the people in the style of Patwaris and often the authority office receives complaints from people that they [staff] are forcing the public to pay bribes.
Some officials of the authority want these people not to be regularized in their jobs so that they are in danger of being fired for corruption and by doing so, the staff will focus only on their work and not on taking bribes,” he believed.
Butter, however, said that this was not the case but that the approval of the service structure was aimed at the welfare of the staff and that the authority had taken a better step to meet their [staff] long standing demands.
“Due to the career ladder and development structure, promotion from Class IV employees to administrative officers has been linked to academic qualifications, annual performance, training and departmental examinations.
Performance-based incentives for staff of the Land Record Center were also unanimously approved and approved by the Chairman of the PLRA Board. All the 5200 Dahi Markaz Malls across Punjab have also been declared as Land Record Centers to provide computerized land record services to the general public,” Butter maintained.
