Deal signed to provide land transaction services

Shehbaz Sharif signed agreement on Thursday under which BoP will establish dedicated counters at all its 450 branches.

LAHORE: The government of Punjab has signed an agreement with the Bank of Punjab (BoP) to provide all services related to land transactions under one roof.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the agreement on Thursday under which BoP will establish dedicated counters at all its 450 branches for the issuance of fard (an ownership document) for official recordkeeping.

In the project’s first phase, the BoP will set up collection booths at 143 Arazi Record Centres (ARC) in rural areas of the province. These booths will issue challans and accept payments for fard and mutation (land transfer deal).

Moreover, Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) in collaboration with Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and telecom companies will develop a system through which a printout of fard will be available from any BoP franchise, eliminating the need to visit ARCs to get a copy.



The chief minister said that since the project was for rural areas, it would help farmers on many levels. Opening collection booths at ACRs will save people’s time which is wasted by running between banks and ACRs, he said, adding that this would provide them with all the facilities under one roof.

He further said that to reduce the workload at ACRs, fard issuing desks would also be established at BoP branches.

The government had vowed to end patwari culture in the province and these initiatives remain a testament to that commitment, said Sharif. The Land Record Management Authority (LRMA) would soon put an end to this corrupt culture, he added.

According to the CM, patwaris would be allowed to leave jobs after paying back the looted money or continue working for some other departments. This outsourcing of work would save precious resources of the government and allow effective output, he said.

The system would be made operational by December 15 in 143 tehsils.

“With a bank on board, farmers would be able to take loans as they won’t have to run from pillar to post to verify their ownership,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2017.