Speaking to media persons after an agreement signing ceremony between Land Record Authority and Nadra to provide services of obtaining ownership deeds of public properties at Nadra's 3700 E-Sahulat Centres to people at Lahore the other day, a visibly beaming chief minister of country's largest populated province declared that his government's step would facilitate as many as 55 million farmers of Punjab. According to him, "[I]t will save time and ensure transparency through dexterous use of information technology." The occasion offered him a new opportunity to recall that when he came to power in 2008 (his second stint as chief minister), "the project has moved forward speedily" and it was completed (23,000 villages were computerized) with "collective efforts". "We have ensured that no Patwar culture can ever encumber the new system," he said while announcing that as many as 450 employees who succeeded in getting jobs through bribery were removed and the "responsible persons" were put behind the bars. "We have also adopted the policy of zero-tolerance against corruption and effective steps have been taken against it," he said, adding: "The new system has been made transparent with tremendous efforts and no such complaints of corruption are received now which were lodged six months earlier. An intelligence wing has also been set up in Punjab Land Record Authority which is working in an organized manner there."
There is no doubt about the fact that the Punjab government's initiative is not less than a milestone in the history of land ownership and revenue generation. There is also no dispute about the fact that an international moot of the World Bank, held in Washington with 126 countries in attendance, has described this project as the "role model" initiative for others. However, the question remains as to whether the institution of Patwari only deserves condemnation or contempt.
Although the British rule was grimly exploitative, it made at least three great contributions to the colonial India: mega irrigation infrastructure in Punjab, railways and bureaucracy. In the case of bureaucracy in particular, the occupiers in fact improved upon the centuries-old land revenue system or the Patwar system in undivided India largely with a view to filling the coffers of the British Empire with foreign money. From this improved system emerged Patwari or Lehkhpal as one of the most powerful arms of this Western empire to help sustain its protracted rule in an agrarian society. Each village, for example, was assigned to a particular Patwari (Tapedar in Sindh) who maintained the record of ownership of land (Khatauni/Jamabardi), record of cultivation of land (Kharsa Girwarai), map of the village (Aks Sizra), mutation register and other record of the village. In every cropping season, the Patwari would inspect every field and record the cultivation data. He would also initiate mutation (change in ownership) and give certified copies of land records. And the duties of each Patwari would be supervised by Registrar Kanungo.
Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif whose family has been ruling the province for over three decades must not lose sight of the fact that all was not bad insofar as the Patwar system was concerned. In that system, Patwari too was accountable for the credibility of maps prepared and statistics compiled by him before a bureaucratic hierarchy, including Tehsildar (Mukhtiarkar in Sindh). While no one can dispute the quality of improvement and transparency the computer technology has injected into the system in Punjab, a major part of Patwar system or village accountancy system shall remain relevant because of its profound impact on the agrarian landscape of the entire subcontinent. The Punjab Chief Minister's assertion that the PML-N government has buried the '150-year-old Patwar culture' to a large extent betrays his lack of understanding of history. Although it was in 1814 that a legislation requiring all villages to maintain an accountant (Patwari) as an official agent of the government was enacted, the Patwar system was first introduced during the rule of Sher Shah Suri. The British colonial era made some significant amendments in the system that had already received a major boost during the rule of Emperor Akbar. The Patwar system may not necessarily be seen through the prism of corruption alone.
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