Bengaluru: Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar Monday said the state govt will launch a special e-khata drive across Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) limits, with officials visiting property owners to issue khatas at their doorsteps. He said the move is part of the govt’s decision to digitise property records across Bengaluru and prevent tax evasion. So far, authorities have already digitised documents for 25 lakh properties and that e-khatas were being issued for all properties as part of the exercise.
“So far, we have issued e-khatas for 9.5 lakh properties in GBA,” Shivakumar said. “We have now decided to launch a special drive in all five Bengaluru corporations. Officials will visit property owners and issue e-khatas. This facility will be later extended to other cities.” He said the govt had also begun converting B-khatas (semi-legal) properties to fully legal status. “GBA received 7,000 applications for khata conversion,” he said. “Currently, we have limited conversion of B-khata to A-khata for land and not buildings. Officials will visit each property before khata conversion.” Shivakumar said many property owners possessed only sale deeds and had no khata. “They too, will be eligible for khatas. We have received 1.2 lakh applications. After verification, khatas were issued to 60,000 applicants while 15,000 are still under process. However, some 45,000 applications have been rejected. We are auditing these owners,” he said. He said the govt had introduced a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for property tax defaulters and it benefited over 2.6 lakh property owners, helping GBA collect Rs 1,200 crore in dues. He said GBA had issued more than 12,000 online building plan approvals under the ‘Nambike Nakshe’ scheme. Shivakumar said the state govt would spend over Rs 1.4 lakh crore over the next three to four years on city infrastructure, including roads, double-deck flyovers, tunnel roads and water supply expansion. The deputy CM said the govt planned to spend Rs 45,000 crore on tunnel roads, including north-south and east-west corridors. He said administrative approval has been granted for the north-south corridor at an estimated cost of Rs 17,780 crore and a loan had been taken from HUDCO for the project.
