Captain Zafar Iqbal (Retd), Director General of Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA), said on Saturday that Land Record Management Information System (LRMIS) is generating revenue of more than 700 million rupees on average per month through issuance of two hundred thousands of computerised fard and attestation of more than 70,000 mutations at Arazi Record Centers.
While talking to Business Recorder, Zafar Iqbal said that LRMIS's contribution in improve governance, functioning of land markets and opening new gate ways for economic activity is rising with each passing day. He also said that (PLRA) will establish Bank of Punjab (BoP) counters in record centers across Punjab. PLRA will also introduce dedicated counters at various branches of BoP from where people will be able to get the "Fard".
Zafar Iqbal also said that it was very difficult for the public to access their land record in the old system. However, the new computerised system has removed these obstacles. Now, people can not only get their land record promptly, but can also get their properties transferred easily. After the introduction of new digital land record system, record pertaining to over 50 million land owners has been uploaded to the PLRA's database.
He said issuance of Fard (ie copy of record of rights) in less than 30 minutes and attestation of mutation in less than 50 minutes While talking about the future road map of PRLA, Zafar said the authority will keep on paving its way towards new horizons of public facilitations through computerisation of Urban Land Records, Update of maps with its linkages with textual data, developing necessary linkages with tax agencies, courts and different departments, automation of pass books and necessary linkage with financial institutions, linkages with registration of deed project and auto update of records and enhance linkages with NADRA for family tree.
"The land records project has also addressed all the capacity issues which were prevailing in the previous manual system. The system is issuing more than 200,000 copies of record of rights and attesting more than 60,000 mutations in a month. The system is also catering all the requirements of different Government agencies and is helpful in different schemes. Land Records Management System is truly transformative project which brings technology and transparency to land transfers and registration," Zafar said.
Director Punjab Land Record Authority said that project has established state of the art purpose built Arazi Record Centers (ARC) in each tehsil of Punjab and now all 143 ARCs have been made operational. The services with regards to issuance of computerised Fards (copy of record of right) and computerised attestation of mutations are being rendered through these ARCs in a specified time period. It took only 3 years to establish all new ARCs having all facilities like furniture & fixtures, IT equipment and necessary networking. The project has also introduced a new cadre to handle all the services with regards to land records.
Land records system in Punjab province of Pakistan was inherited from the British era and was maintained in the manual form. Land records was prepared & maintained with an objective to collect revenues only and land titling or land ownership was not envisaged at that time. The old patwar manual culture has miserably handled the general public in the service delivery and maximum deterioration escorted with the corruption has been done with the land records.
Zafar said one of the major objectives of the project is to control rent seeking practices of the revenue functionaries and to provide the management with the tools to conduct improved monitoring and inspection of the work at the service delivery end. The project has transformed the centuries old manual record into the digital format and land records of more than 55.5 million land owners has been made part of the database. The project started with an aim to have an efficient, equitable, accountable and secure land records system.
He also said after the digitization process completed, a unified very low fee structure has been introduced. Now, land owner can obtain the copy of record of right by paying minimum 0.5 US$ to a maximum of 1.5 US$ only which was previously ranging 20-1,000 US$.
He said manual record which was kept in different registers was exceptionally challenging to manage and link. Due to the extremely large number of land parcels in each Revenue Estate, the record maintenance was a major challenge. During the computerization process, a very comprehensive verification mechanism was adopted to ensure that data which is being made part of the database is reliable.
In this regard, first of all the archiving and indexing of all registers was done in the field than double blind data entry of the archived record was concluded. The record which was scattered in different registers like family tree, field book, mutation register, mortgage register and register of land ownership was entered in a single database. Prior to printing of computerised record, the computer checks were applied to the system to verify the calculation and symmetry of the record. The computerized register were printed and sent to the field with the direction to verify the record and to correct the inconsistencies with the supporting documents. The record was again remedied based upon the facts and more than 5 million inconsistencies corrected in the digitized system.
He also said that land records system has also been linked with the Financial Institutions, Agriculture Department, Livestock Department, Disaster management Department and Punjab Information & Technology Board.
He said banks are verifying the land ownership and encumbrances through the linked system and after the verification from the system the banks process the applications for loans. Moreover, e-pass book required for the loan is also being issued from the land record system for the agriculture loan. The agriculture department uses the LRMIS database in order to give any subsidy for the land farmers. The land category wise, land type wise and ownership / gender wise information is readily available for the Government departments in case of any compensation due to disaster. The orders issued from the courts are also managed electronically and immediately made part of the database which is reflected at the website.
"Robust software was developed to ensure the transparency of the services being rendered at the ARCs. The LRMIS system has been linked with the National Database and Registration Authority and verification of each landowner is being carried out prior to start of any service; making the system more transparent. All the record issued from the ARCs has a unique code, time, fee and pictures of buyer& seller. The log-trail of each entry in the software is being maintained. Moreover, a system intelligence system to check the transactions has also been put in place to ensure the transparency," Zafar said.
Zafar Iqbal said a comprehensive monitoring mechanism has been put in place to ensure the efficient and transparent service delivery in the field. IP cameras have been installed in all 143 ARCs and a monitoring control room has been established to monitor the service delivery. The services of a call centre have been availed from the 3rd party and complaints / suggestions are being received through this call centre.
"The project is also making outbound calls to 10% of customers of one month to capture their feedback. A monitoring dashboard has also been developed to check the efficiency of each employee, system anomalies, revenue generation, pending work, stages of each transaction and attendance of field staff. SMS feedback system has also been put in place and SMS to each customer is being sent to capture its response by asking whether he / she is satisfied from the services or otherwise. Complaint boxes have also been placed at the ARCs. Moreover, the telephone numbers of local district administrations have also been displayed at the prominent places of ARCs for registering any complaint", Zafar concluded.
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