According to a press report, Chief Justice of Lahore High Court has ordered the Punjab government to constitute special task forces at district level to keep an eye on corrupt practices of Patwaris and to entertain public complain against them.
I appreciate this step but I am afraid unless the present system record of land owners is not computerised and post of Patwari is not abolished, the corruption will not be eliminated because it is not only the Patawari who is beneficiary of present system but the higher-ups in the revenue department also have their share. It is the need of the hour to replace this obsolete system of record keeping.
It is not very expensive to use GIS and GPS Technology to keep the record of land and its ownership.
The provincial government should replace its Revenue Department with a Land Assets Management Authority which can engage the private sector or NADRA to handle the data of land ownership.
A huge amount of money has been spent on using computers and internet for such record keeping, but it has never been implemented. To reduce the corruption, the use of information technology is imperative.
Unfortunately, the present mainstream political parties are not interested in tackling corruption and reforming the system of civil administration.
This is the main reason why the corruption in Pakistan is increasing. It needs to change, and change soon.
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore