Pakistan Railways has started the process of regaining the title of its land and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has transferred the claimed land to Railways. Regarding the tussle between the railways and provinces pertaining to encroachment on lands, the Supreme Court had given orders, declaring the land on both sides of the railway track as property of the Pakistan Railways.
Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) sub-committee was informed on Wednesday that following the ruling of apex court, the repossession of railways land has started. Secretary Railways Perveen Agha informed the committee that the Railways land record across the country will be computerized within two years and an agreement was singed in this regard between Pakistan Railways and Punjab Urban Unit.
As many as 27 teams were formed for surveying the total railways land. An amount of Rs 400 million would be spent on the project. The monitoring and verification of the current land position would be made possible after computerization of the land record, railway management informed the committee.
The Railways board has also become functional after eight years and met on June 3 for writing off a massive amount, which could not be recoverable in many cases, according to audit departments 1998-99 report. One such case is permanent material valuing Rs 5.2 million was stolen from the closed Mari-Bannu section during July 1991 to June 1998 due to negligence of the staff deputed for looking after the material.
The committee grilled the Railways management over a faulty system of depositing cash collected through recovery in railway treasury instead of depositing it in a bank account. Secretary Railways informed the committee that railway rules have no provision to keep the cash recovered in fraud cases in bank account therefore the management is keeping it under the custody of railways police.
In a case, Inspector General of Railways Police intimated on April 2015 that out of Rs 4.3 million gratuity amount fraudulent drawn, an amount of Rs 1.3 million was recovered from seven accused by the police in 1999. The recovered amount of Rs 1.3 million was subsequently 'misappropriated' by the then Moharrar of Malkhana Railways Police. Member Committee, Shafqat Mahmood, said that it is a faulty system as the head constable should not be the custodian of million of rupee railway treasury or it must be deposited in a bank account. Secretary responded that the matter has been taken up with ministry of finance recently.
The committee further showed its dissatisfaction over procurement rules of Pak Railways. Shafqat Mahmood said it is a faulty system that the railways is entitled to inspect the consignment after payment of full amount and recommended the railways to review its payment policy.
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