Chitral Times Report
PESHAWAR: In the light of the directives of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, mass scale reforms are underway in the Board of Revenue Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. During the last one year overall reforms process has been geared up and a number of valuable reforms have been made through which Service Delivery Centers (SDCs) are being established to make the process of (Fard) and mutation an easier, convenient, public friendly and transparent. 24 Service Delivery Centers have been established so far in the province whereas the number of these centers would be increased to 36 by June this year. All the services including mutation of lands, issuance of (Fard) and registration would be available under the same roof in the service delivery centers thereby reducing the role of Patwaris in these services to optimum level. In order to change the Patwar Culture, the course related to Patwari has been revised and GIS and MIS/IT have been made an essential part of the syllabus. For the first time in the history female patwars are being recruited in the province.
This was revealed in an important meeting of the Board of Revenue held here with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair to review the progress on the reforms initiatives being taken by the departments. Provincial minister for revenue Qalandar Khan Lodhi, Senior Member Board of Revenue Syed Zafar Ali Shah, administrative secretaries of Irrigation, Finance and Law departments and other concerned high ups attended the meeting. The meeting was given a detailed briefing on patwar reforms, lease policy of state land and matters related to (Abyana) collection. The forum was informed that keeping in view the ongoing digitization of land records in the province, initiatives were underway to change the overall patwar system in accordance with the need of near future adding that induction of 120 candidates to patwar cadre has been made through ETEA. It was told that Patwar Cadre would be upgraded at district level and BS in computer science would be the basic qualification for upgraded post with change of Patwari nomenclature. This will end the stigma attached with the post. The new incumbent would be deployed in Service Delivery Centers and field simultaneously.
Conduction of public surveys for feedback against corruption, provision of required stationary and budget to reduce corruption were also proposed in the meeting adding that (Revenue Darbar), Citizen Feedback, complaint portal, Minister Complaint cell, Helpline, and CM complaint cell will also help in checking wrong doings. It was further informed that visible progress has also been made in the process of land records computerization as 1100 Mouzas have been operationalized so far and computerization of 1100 Mouzas is in final stages and would be completed till the end of this year. The authorities briefed the forum about the lease policy of state land with special focus on the proposed lease periods for industrial investment. They told that in order to ensure promotion of investment in the province, lease period for industrial investment has been specified in the policy.
According to the new proposals, initial lease period of 33 years has been fixed for each residential, commercial and industrial investment which would be extendable to further 33 years. Initial lease period of 15 years was proposed for agriculture investment which would be extendable to further 15 years. The chief minister while agreeing in principle to the proposed amendments in the lease policy of state land has directed the quarter concerned to come up with final proposal and consultation with all the stake holders within next ten days adding that the basic purpose was to facilitate the investors especially in the sector of industrial investment.
He also agreed to the proposed strategy for implementation and attraction of the investors under which regular quarterly meetings with stake holders and potential investors would be held and key sites with good potential would be highlighted and orientation sessions of all deputy commissioners will be arranged. The forum also underlined the need to improve the (Abyana) Collection and decided in principle that from the next fiscal year, collection of (Abyana) would be carried out through revenue department. The chief minister has directed the authorities concerned to complete all the pre-requisites in time and submit a consolidated summary to this effect within the next 15 days.
