In compliance of presidential directives and Supreme Court’s order, the Sindh government has started the project – Land Revenue and Management Information System (LARMIS) – aimed at computerization of land records, it is learnt. Under LARMIS, all transactions of land record made in Sindh, pertaining to all districts, during the last five years, have been computerized and made available through operational service centers.Besides, some 90 percent of the remaining record has also been computerized and is in the process of field verification by the deputy commissioners, sources added. The service centers which will provide computerized records to people have been planned in each district headquarter while three service centers each at Hyderabad, Tando Mohammad Khan, and Jamshoro have already been made functional, and the remaining will be made functional by December 2015. So far, the new, computerised database can be accessed for free in three of the 27 district service centres in Sindh, with another five centres to be opened up in the coming week. The Larmis, or the Land Administration and Revenue Management Information System, is costing the province Rs4.9 billion, as compared to Punjab’s cost of computerisation, which is Rs15 billion, being footed by the World Bank. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s computerisation is being carried out in conjunction with UN-Habitat. The Sindh government, on the other hand, is financing the project from its own funds. The digital database will be revolutionary, as it has the potential to make huge dents in the web of corruption that the public often finds itself trapped in when trying to obtain information about land records. A majority of people are forced to access this information through illegitimate means and by doling out money to the government appointed patwari — the custodian of all property records. The new system will, finally, finish the monopoly of the patwari, as well as reduce the possibility of land records being tampered with. This digitisation of records can also have several socioeconomic benefits. The process can lead to more security for landowners, particularly women and other vulnerable groups, who are always in danger of falling prey to the land mafia. It is hoped that this system, then, changes the culture of corruption that has afflicted Sindh and particularly Karachi for a long time now.
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