The PLRA Completes Computerization Of Lahore’s Land Records
GUJRAT: The Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) has completed the computerization of the entire record of all the nine land registration branches of the Lahore district. Senior PLRA officials told the media that since 1947, the registration branches’ records of land mutations and property deeds have been automated to reduce the involvement of powerful mafias involved in falsifying official data.
According to an official, the Lahore district was divided into nine registration branches under the project’s land revenue wing of the deputy commissioner’s office. The scanning of property mutation registration deeds in Lahore was started by the previous PML-N government, he added, and the majority of the work was finished in 2017-18.
According to the official, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Umar Sher Chatha raised the issue with Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Baber Hayat Tarrar after the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) filed a large number of cases against administrative officials involved in making false entries in registration branches.
This, he said, prompted the PLRA to expedite the completion of the land record computerization project. Touqeer Ilyas Cheema, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Lahore, said special counters were being set up in all nine zones of the district’s registration office where individuals could acquire verified computerized copies of their properties.
He said that the move will help to deter mafias from falsifying registration branch manual records with the purported cooperation of authorities, saving the real owners from a protracted legal battle.
It would also protect property owners seeking document verification from the exploitation of record keepers who, in many cases, worked hand in hand with the land mafia, assisting swindlers in obtaining favorable court verdicts.
The DC thought that computerizing land records would help reduce concerns about property ownership document fraud. While talking to the media, A PLRA spokesman said the officials trained to run the new system would soon be deputed at the dedicated desks of the registration branches.