PLRA counter to be set up at LDA

Aim is to minimise complaints and undue delay in documentation

LAHORE: Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General (DG) Amna Imran Khan has ordered the establishment of a Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) counter at the One-Window Cell of the authority for the online verification of land records.

She issued these orders at a meeting with PLRA DG Ayesha Hameed who called on her at her office on Saturday.

The PLRA counter is aimed at minimising public complaints and undue delays in the verification of property documents and issuance of no objection certificates (NOC).

Khan directed concerned officers to make prompt arrangements for online access to the PLRA database and finalise the draft for service level agreement in the shortest possible time.  She believed the service would go a long way in helping citizens who faced hardships due to the long delays in getting their land record documents verified by revenue officials.

Ayesha Hameed told Khan that PLRA had already signed a similar agreement with the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (MCL) for online verification of land records in the latter’s jurisdiction.

She highlighted that after availing this facility, LDA will have online access to land records of plots situated in its housing schemes. The facility will dramatically reduce verification time of land ownership, fard, mutation, registry and other such documents.



Earlier, citizens had to visit the LDA office numerous times to get their documents verified or to obtain NOCs. Property dealer Muhammad Azeem highlighted that the authority has lethargic procedures. A local has to wait for minimum four to six months to get a NOC from LDA or several weeks to get property documents verified due to the manual procedure. "I believe the authority has adopted such inefficient procedures by design in order to mint money from citizens,” the property dealer said. “It is really difficult to get any file move without paying “speed money”."

Contrary to LDA, he said the same services were provided by private housing societies within a couple of hours. “The former provincial government spent millions of rupees on advertisements to highlight its automated project for property transfers and verifications. Maybe this project has helped the rural population of Punjab, but the government has failed to bring any improvement in LDA's functionality," he stressed.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2018.