Land records: Farmers accuse revenue officers of corruption

Say they are deliberately delaying the computerisation of land records.

FAISALABAD:

Dozens of farmers on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration at Kutchery Chowk accusing the Revenue Department staff of “taking bribes and deliberately delaying the process of computerisation of land records.”

Ikram Anwar, one of the protestors, told The Express Tribune that he had been trying to get the record of his land in Saddar tehsil for five months.

“The patwari keeps telling me that the records are with the Revenue Department for computerisation... the qanoongo keeps asking for a bribe.”

Anwar said the tehsildar had refused to hear his complaint against the qanoongo or the patwari.



Ghulam Rasool, another protestor, said he had had to pay Rs2,000 to a tout to get the record of his land in district Kacheri because the patwari and kanoongo had refused to give it to him saying “it was with the Revenue Department.”

“At first I was hesitant to pay the bribe... then I realised that this was the only way I’d get the fard... the tout got me the record in one hour,” he said.

A Revenue Department officer speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Express Tribune that some officials in the department were delaying the process of computerisation of land records.

He said the staff would not be able to get the bribes once the records were computerised.

Additional District Collector Nadeem Ahmad told The Express Tribune said he had not received any complaints against the Revenue Department staff.

“Strict action will be taken against the patwaris and qanoongos if they are found taking bribes.”

Ahmad said the district government had decided to place complaint boxes in front of the revenue offices where farmers could file complaints.

He said the computerisation of land records was a lengthy process.  “We are trying our best to complete it at the earliest.” He said he hoped that the process would be complete in a few months.

The Punjab government had earlier said that the process of computerisation of land records in Faisalabad would be complete by June 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2014.