LAHORE: As Punjab government decides to outsource its computerised land record system and LRMS authority, the Bank of Punjab signed the first agreement in this regard here on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Under the agreement, the BoP will set up special desks in its 453 branches for submission of challan forms for getting fard (land ownership record), mutation and payment of all fees.

Lauding the team that computerised the land record in all 143 tehsils of Punjab, the chief minister said the system benefited millions of people and rid the rural areas of `patwari culture` to a large extent.

He said that 17,000 sham entries were identified in the manual record of gurdawars (Sikh temples), but because of the LRMS, no such glitch occurred during the wheat procurement drive that hadrecently been completed.

He hoped that the patwar system would be completely eliminated, and added: `The patwaris then will have to deposit the money they have amassed through corruption with the NAB and go home.

He said the provision of land record was being outsourced to offload the additional burden the government was to bear in this respect.

The step, Shahbaz added, would also benefit the owners of ruralland as the land record would now serve as a bankable document for seeking loans etc from the bank.

Responding to a query about expanding the land record system to urban centres as well, he said the step could be taken af ter completion of the rural part of the computerisation project.

He declined to reply political questions.

Earlier, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah briefed the audience on the reasons behind the LRMS outsourcing and exploitation of small farmers by patwaris.-Staff Reporter