'Revenue officials in Kohat violating govt rates in land transfers'.

KOHAT -- Revenue department officials have been accused of violating the government-fixed rates during the land transfers to pocket commissions in connivance with the property dealers, thus causing losses to the exchequer.

Sources said due to strict government policy to check fraud and bribery in land transfers, the amount of kickbacks varied from area to area depending on land prices.

They said patwaris paid bribes to officials for posting to the areas considered most lucrative. They said the patwaris accepted one-fourth of the price of the land against the actual government rate and minted commissions up to Rs20,000 to Rs200,000 per transfer depending on size and price of the land.

The patwaris also charged extra money for dividing a collective property among the owners, the sources revealed.

When contacted, tehsildar Asghar Ali told Dawn that the sellers and buyers showed less price of the land, which reduced the transfer fee.

He said at a meeting with the assistant commissioner he had recommended a 15 per cent raise in government rate of land in urban areas and 10 per cent in rural areas.

Noor Islam, a property dealer, said the deputy commissioner had fixed rate for every area.

VACATION ORDERS PANIC TMA EMPLOYEES: Panic gripped former employees of the tehsil municipal administration when they were ordered to vacate the residential quarters for demolition on Wednesday, 19 years after their retirement.

The former employees said the residential quarters had been leased out to them for 99 years, but the administration had started vacating them illegally.

They said their case was...

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