Land record project faces uncertainty.......What a Joke with ADLR'S

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DAWN NEWS
Asif Chaudhry
May 02, 2014

LAHORE: The ambitious land record computerisation project faces a setback amid chorus of discontent by the assistant directors land records (ADLRs) who have hinted at ‘en bloc resignations’ to protest their alleged victimisation by some senior admin officials.

To start with, the disgruntled officials are withdrawing their services from Friday (today). It will be followed by ‘en bloc resignations’ in the next few days if their issues are not addressed, a senior official told Dawn.

He said 90 ADLRs were recruited in March 2013 by the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the Board of Revenue through competitive examination conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission. He said after induction of the ADLRs, who are considered backbone of the project, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif set a deadline of December 2014 for the computerisation of land record in the 36 districts of the province.

He said the PMU management started ‘victimising’ them after a couple of months to promote the officials who were hired on a contract by the PMU like Service Centre in-charge and assistant in-charge. More than 10 ADLRs had left the government services so far due to sense of deprivation and victimisation and the others were ready to submit resignation, he revealed.

They communicated their strong concerns to the senior member of the Board of Revenue in a letter two days ago along with a set of documents as an evidence to prove discrimination. Both the ADLRs and the contract officials were posted at the service centres established by the PMU in 98 of the 140 tehsils.

According to documents (copies available with Dawn) the PMU has cut the wings of the ADLRs by withdrawing some financial and administrative powers conferred upon them under ‘Punjab Directorate of Land Records Posts Service Rules 2010’. It has targeted them from time to time, which is evident from an official instruction recently issued by one of the officers in charge of the unit.

“The Punjab government has finished the hiring and training process of the ADLRs and pretty soon you will receive at least one for your centre,” he wrote to the Service Centre in-charge. He asked the SCIs and the other staff including watchmen and sweepers not to report to the ADLRs.

“The ADLRs are not entitled to any special treatment and therefore should not be treated as such. They don’t have a right to an assistant or a dedicated office boy,” he further directed the SCIs.

The OIC further communicated that any consumables or office items required by ADLRs would be routed through SCIs.

Interestingly, both the OIC who wrote this letter and SCIs who received it are contract officials.

The Service Rules 2010 say “the ADLRs shall supervise the staff at the service centre in coordination with Service Centre In-charge. The ADLRs shall be responsible to ensure that the register showing amount of fee realised at the service centre for grant of certified copies of computerised record is maintained in accordance with law. They shall examine the identity of documents of the parties and witnesses for their genuineness and verify these from Nadra database.

“They shall also discharge duties of a Revenue Officer, as notified by Board of Revenue from time to time.”

The BoR through a notification of Nov 12, 2013 had announced financial incentive of Rs75 for all revenue officers including ADLRs as equal share in the mutation fee. The distribution of the share was further elaborated as Rs100 to the all service centre officials and Rs25 to all assistant in-charge service centre and in-charge service centre.

The PMU administration, however, reduced share from Rs75 to Rs25 and adjusted the amount in the share of officials who were getting Rs25 in mutation fee.

“Unfortunately, as the system is new the ADLRs are not provided with favourable environment and facilities to utilise their training and capabilities,” one of the officials told Dawn. He said that at a two-day workshop recently the PMU officials demoralised the ADLRs and treated them like ‘clerks’.

Moreover, he said, they had not been provided rooms for office use, staff, infrastructure and other facilities which were mentioned in the job descriptions.

“The ADLR, a BS-17 regular official, has been getting salary package of Rs44,000 compared to a contract official (SCI) who is getting Rs55,000,” he said.

“We have no accommodation in the posting districts of Punjab and no transfer allowance,” the official said. He said the ADLRs were going to withdraw their official services from Friday.

Senior Member Board of Revenue, Punjab Nadeem Ashraf said his department was already working on proposals to address the genuine issues of the ADLRs like service structure.

“But I don’t know what kind of discrimination is meted out to them by the PMU admin. Still, I am ready to give them sympathetic hearing,” he said and added that all the ADLRs were recruited through the PPSC and were worthy of respect.

The ADLRs, he said, had submitted him a complaint about their reservations and he would conduct an inquiry to know the seriousness of the matter. “My doors are open to them and they should visit my office whenever they want,” he said. He said he would talk to the PMU management in this regard.

Deputy Project Director of the PMU Zafar Iqbal dispelled an impression about victimisation of the officials and said they were misleading and trying to cover up their absence from duties besides some other irregularities.

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hAHHAHAHAHAHAH very interesting

[rizwanrizi100]

india mainbe ye computerization system chala tha baad main use revert kar dia gaya