Daily Times

As the incumbent government is stranded in multiple problems at various fronts ranging inflation, depreciation of rupee against dollar, commodity basket price hike, shortfall of fertiliser and deteriorating condition of economic landscape, but in all these predicaments, multiple steps on climate adaptability and mitigation, Digitization of Land information System, Industrial Hamp research program, and cadastral mapping of state-lands have been taken to reform agriculture System.

In order to reform the traditional cadastral system into a digitalised cadastral system, PM Imran Khan took a great initiative to start the Cadastral Mapping of State-Lands. Pakistan inherited manual cadastral system of land management which is both inef?cient and obsolete. It consists of Field Books, Record Registers and Cadastral Maps prepared in graphical form on a paper called ‘Mussavi’ or on a piece of cloth called “Latha.” Field Books contain attributes data prepared on the basis of physical ?eld surveys. These attributes include parcel survey numbers, parcel dimensions, land type and total area of the parcel. The attributes information in Field Books and Cadastral maps are prepared during land settlement which is supposed to be held once every 30-35years, but is rarely ever arranged in actual practice. Currently, Kishtwar in mountainous areas and rectangular survey in plain areas are the two main systems for cadastral mapping practiced in the country. Land parcels in the Kishtwar survey system are arranged into irregular-shaped polygons, while Rectangular survey arranges them in regular polygons. The system is decentralised and each province has its own Board of Revenue (BOR) to manually prepare, archive and manage their land records at three administrative levels i.e. province (level-I), district (level-II) and tehsil (level-III). Being an old system, it has inherent drawbacks and deficiencies resulting into inaccuracies in measurement. As a result, there is an increasing realisation that the existing cadastral system is required to be transformed into modern system, which is fundamental to economic development and environmental management in both cities and rural areas of the country. Last year, PM directed the Survey of Pakistan (SOP) to tender the project of Cadastral Mapping of state-lands of Punjab and KPK. SOP outsourced the project to different organisations. Multiple organizations offered their services but SOP, after observing the efficiency and technical expertise assigned the Division of Rawalpindi to Urban Unit; Lahore, Peshawar, DG Khan and Bahawalpur to TechGIS Pvt. Ltd and Sahiwal, Sargodha, Faisalabad and Multan to Greenage Services Islamabad. This project of Cadastral Mapping involves following steps.

Geo-referencing and digitisation of old Cadastral Maps without incorporating proper parcel measurements and precise field surveys have resulted into a range of serious digitization, mosaicking and topological errors.

Data Acquisition: GIS is a tool that integrates data with maps and gives a product that contains both, Geographic location and required information. In this project two type of data is required. Raster Data and Tabular Data. Raster Data includes Mussavis, Lathas that are handmade maps of Mauzas and Satellite images of Districts. Satellite images are purchased from different sources and Lathas and Mussavis are provided by SOP which they obtained from BOR. Tabular Data is also provided by BOR and for verification, teams are sent to field visit to obtain Patwari Record from District Administration.

Scanning of Mussavis: Next step is to scan the handmade Mussavis and Lathas. Maximum Mussavis were scanned by SOP

Processing of Raster Data: Scanned Raster data in raw shape is received from SOP and is further processed to make it ready for analysis through GIS softwares. That data is processed through coding and different programming languages and is converted into spatial format that is readable to GIS softwares. Mussavis are mosaicked into a complete raster image of a Mauza.

Geo-referencing: Geo-referencing is a process of superimposition of a scanned map or aerial photograph on its spatial place on ground giving its geographic coordinates to it. Mosaicked Mauzas are given their geographic coordinates into a geographic reference system and are superimposed on satellite images of their districts. Now data is geographically aligned and is all set for further processing and analysis.

Digitisation: Digitisation is a process through which we convert our mosaicked images of Mauzas into vector form according to the shapes on ground and Mussavis. This project is digitisation of state-lands so only those Murabbas and Khasras would be digitised that are marked state property by the record which we received from BOR and district Administration.

Shifting from traditional cadastral system to digitalised cadastral system will deliver multiple benefits. Some of them are following; Mapping of land parcels and management in the form of database to upgrade century old manual cadaster system will ensure quick service delivery due to easy retrieval of required land map information from the digital cadastral database with attached attributes like name of the owner, area and other information. Improved land management and local planning by providing clear and accurate information will reduce corrupt practices in land transfers, land disputes and litigation. It will provide transparent land record and online accessibility for land owners or end users. Modern cadastral system will support sustainable economic development and environmental management. It will provide basic framework for local government administration, city planning, collection and assessment of local government taxes and rates, managing utilities, transport systems, education, health, forestry and resource management.

There are various problems that need to be tackled professionally in order to make it more accurate: (i) Computerisation of land record and maps started at provincial level without proper study/plan. In 2006, Punjab government introduced a land records digitisation initiative, in collaboration with the World Bank. This initiative, called Land Record Management Information System (LRMIS), commenced with an objective to convert attribute records into digital format. Geo-referencing and digitisation of old Cadastral Maps without incorporating proper parcel measurements and precise ?eld surveys have resulted into a range of serious digitization, mosaicking and topological errors in the system. (ii) Mussavis are too old and dilapidated that make difficult to identify and trace actual feature. (iii) Identification of Murabbas, Khasra and sub- Khasra number on Mussavis become very difficult. (iv) During field verification survey, a lot of difficulties were faced by the field staff because in some areas district Administration was reluctant to extend its support.

Government should allocate more budget and resources in order to complete the existing project quickly and to initiate the cadastral mapping of private land as well.

Advocate Ghulam Rasool is a visiting faculty member (Agriculture University, Rawalpindi) and Saqlain Akram is an expert in GIS and Remote Sensing.