Special Assistant to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister, Pir Haroon Shah, conducted a comprehensive review of the land record settlement project in District Dir Upper, Dir Lower, and Tehsil Kalam at the project director’s office in Peshawar.
During the review meeting, Project Director Fahad Wazir provided a briefing on the land settlement procedure, project performance, challenges faced, and the way forward. Fahad Wazir informed Pir Haroon Shah that work on land settlement is in progress, covering a total of 121 mouzas in Dir Upper district, 216 mouzas in Dir Lower, and 17 mouzas in Tehsil Kalam, Swat.
Regarding Shajara-e-Nasab, he mentioned that 75% of Dir Upper, 93.5% of Dir Lower, and 27% of Swat Kalam’s Shajara-e-Nasabs have been registered.
The special assistant was further informed that the land settlement project has recorded data for 56 mouzajaat of Dir Lower in the geographical information system, while the data for 17 mouzajaat of Kalam, Swat, has been entered into the GIS system. Pir Haroon Shah acknowledged the challenges faced in the District Dir Upper and Lower and Kalam Land Record Settlement Project. He emphasized the timely provision of funds and resolution of vehicle shortages and other related issues to ensure orderly and computerized land records in the respective areas.
He instructed the project director to prioritize quality work in land record settlement to prevent any future problems for individuals related to land records.
It is worth mentioning that around 13 districts out of the total 35 in the K-P province are currently without land records, posing a significant challenge to the Revenue Department, including the newly merged tribal districts.
The land settlement process has reached its final stages in Chitral Upper and Lower, while work on land records has been initiated in Malakand in 2019 and is still ongoing. The districts where settlement work is yet to begin include Dir Lower, Dir Upper, Torghar, Kohistan, Kohistan Lower, Kolai Palas, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North, and South Waziristan.
“The Planning and Development Department has received a PC-1 to start work in Dir Lower, Dir Upper and Kalam area of Swat district while government has also green-lighted start of work in tribal districts,” said the official while talking to The Express Tribune back then, adding that the proposal to start work in Torghar district was seriously being considered.
The Revenue Department is facing pressure from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to expedite the settlement work.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2023.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ