Anti-encroachment help: Sindh becomes first province to computerise land records

New software will help tackle corruption, forgeries.

KARACHI:

Sindh has mapped all of its districts and talukas and 30% of its dehs, making it the first province to successfully start the computerisation of land records.

Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah inaugurated the computerisation programme at Revenue House in Shireen Jinnah Colony Wednesday morning. If the land records are integrated and computerised it will be clear who has the titles across the province, he said. This development comes at a time when the province, and especially Karachi, is battling land grabbing and a mafia that encroaches on government and private land. This not only leads to a loss of revenue but also violence as the criminals are armed to the teeth and attack people who try to reclaim their land.

The Sindh government has thus embarked on the ambitious task of recording all urban and rural land records. “It is the prime duty and responsibility of the Board of Revenue to maintain and preserve the total records,” said the CM. The computerisation will be strictly protected and maintained for the use of owners and Khatedars, he added.

A senior member of the Board of Revenue, Shazir Shamoon, gave a briefing on the project. It was meant to use the latest technology, like satellite imagery, to assess land use and preserve over 100 year old revenue records.

This involves a Land Administration & Revenue Management Information System (LARMIS) and the development of GIS (digital mapping). The GIS software needs to be customised so they can digitally map the 23 districts, 121 talukas and 6,970 dehs. They need to set up 216 ground-control points and merge the Geo-database, LARMIS and registration database.

These records will be electronically linked to the registration deeds companies. This will be a key instrument for the insurance industry and poor farmers can also be helped with micro-finance as a result.

The government expects it will take another year to get all the paperwork covered, but in the end they hope it will ensure transparency and eliminate corruption and forgery. So far, 50,000 pages have been protected.

The CM said that the old records of land holdings must be properly recorded, preserved and protected which will be a challenge as they are in a deteriorated condition.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Chief Secretary Raja Muhammad Abbas, Special Secretary to the CM Dr Atta Muhammad Panhwar, Information Secretary Syed Safdar Ali Shah, and officers of the Board of Revenue.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th,  2011.