Provincial Minister Revenue Malik Muhammad Anwer on Thursday said that the Punjab government has approved the project for the digitization of crop inspection and the project will kick off by Jan, 2019. He said, “Punjab government has completed the rural land records and now we are planning to digitize the left over areas ie Urban Land Records and for this it need World Bank support in the preparation of the project document, feasibility report and the proposed structure of Urban Land Records.”
He was talking to a World Bank delegation consisting of Director Social, Rural & Urban sector Anna Wallenstein and Land Administration specialist Mika Lead, D G Land Record Punjab M Aslam also present in the meeting. Matters related to Rural & Urban sectors were discussed in details in the meeting. He said the Punjab government has allocated over Rs 2 billion to set up more than 100 centers at the tehsil level to provide land record services at minimum travelling cost.
According to him, the World Bank has played a pivotal role in the digitization of Rural Land Records and we acknowledge the support extended by the World Bank in the areas of technical, monitoring and operations. The guidance provided by the World Bank helped a lot in the timely completion of the project, he added.
He said the Punjab government has taken new initiatives for the improvement of the current system and now the record of rights is also being issued from NADRA franchises, Banks are now being given direct access to issue record of rights for loan and can generate the mutation.
The provincial minister said that the improvement in the service delivery is also being made time to time through key interventions like improvement in token system and linkages with Sub-registrar offices. He further stated that it would be beneficial for the Government of the Punjab if the World Bank send a mission for detail study of the current system and propose the new structure of Urban Land Records.
Representatives of World Bank said that World Bank has vast experience of dealing with similar nature projects across the globe. They assured to provincial Minister that World Bank will help in design of an appropriate model for local needs. They hoped that this project expected to streamline revenue generation streams for Pakistan.