LAHORE: Punjab government is all set to digitize the red book (commonly known as Lal Kitab) of Patwaris, said sources.
They said the red book was an important tool of the traditional kit (known as Basta) of Patwaris. The objective of this book was to record all the unusual developments and incidents, including damaging crops due to a storm, heavy rains, breaching of water channels, the sudden eruption of diseases among animals, besides disputes among villagers, and even murders in their respective circles.
According to sources, Patwaris had abandoned recording important developments and incidents in their circles with the passage of time and finally they had thrown it out of their official kit.
The Punjab government has decided to revise the practice under its reform programme of the land record and assigned the Board of Revenue (BOR) Punjab to start digitization of the red book. They said Patwaris would be offered android tabs instead of red books under the plan to record day to day crucial developments and incidents in their circle. These android tabs would be linked to the centralized data centre for further actions.
Additional Director General of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Tariq Masood Farooq confirmed the development, saying that the day to day information submitted to the centralized data centre would enable the PDMA for a timely response to any disaster like situation in the province.
Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Babar Hayat Tarar further added that digitization of the red book would be completed side by side with the digitization of periodical records of crops (Girdawri). He expressed the hope that the whole process would be completed by the year-end, followed by the start of day to day reporting of important developments at the level of circles of Patwaris without a break.
Also, he said, the Patwaris were carving maps of lands in their circles on a piece of cloth earlier. However, this exercise would also be digitized from under the reforms plan. Gradually, he said, all the functions of Patwaris would be digitized to help the government in controlling corrupt practices, carrying out the actual assessment of crops, and increasing revenues against the land under cultivation, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021