Revenue dept service centres may get functional in 90 days

Petitioner says bribery thrives in absence of computerised land record

HYDRABAD:

The Sindh Revenue Department Service Centers meant to facilitate the people through computerised maintenance of record of property rights, mutation, transfer, execution and registration of deeds, will be made functional in 90 days.

The department's officers including Inspector Registration Zulfiqar Ali Khushkh, Land Administration and Revenue Management Information System (LARMIS) Director Abdul Wajid Shaikh and Member Reform Wing and Special Cell Syed Ahmed Ali Shah gave this undertaking in the Sindh High Court Hyderabad (SHC) circuit bench.

The Additional Advocate Generals Miran Muhammad Shah and Allah Bachayo Soomro, who represented the provincial government, also assured the same. According to the officials, the centres were established in 27 districts of Sindh in 2016 following the enactment of Sindh Land Revenue (Amendment) Act, 2013.

However, these centres, which are also expected to curb the rampant corruption in the property registration matters, remained far from functional, allowing the old system of eliciting bribes for the legal transactions to continue. As per the Act, the centre is established for maintaining a computerized record of rights of a particular district or taluka. It provides the services for mutation, transfer, execution and registration of deeds, certified copies of computerized record of rights and other matters connected to computerized record of rights.

The petitioner Irshad Ahmed Qazi contended that in the absence of the computerised services, the people are being forced to bribe the officials for their purely legal transactions. "... not only the public is being prejudiced, but the arbitrary and illegal actions and demands of the revenue officials are being encouraged," he maintained, arguing that delay in establishing the centres has been allowing such officials to extort bribes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2023.