Touts make conversion of khatas easier

Touts make job of getting B khata converted into A khata easier. But for them, it would be difficult to identify BBMP officials willing to tamper records.

Once the touts have struck a deal with owners of B khata property, they approach the local BBMP revenue officials, who fraudulently enter the property details in the manually-maintained A khata tax assessment register. The assessment register is a voluminous book, and it is difficult to differentiate between a fake entry and a genuine entry.

Once the illegal entry is made, a khata certificate is generated for the property. Majority of the property owners who had illegally obtained A khata in HSR Layout, Bommanahalli and Arakere wards of the Bommanahalli zone have already sold their properties, one of the whistle-blower revenue officials said on condition of anonymity.

Touts rule the roost

Many of the Assistant Revenue Offices (AROs) in the newly-added areas of the BBMP are infested with touts. Seven previous city municipal councils, one town municipal council and 110 villages were merged into the former Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to form the BBMP in 2007. In the old 100 wards of the BBMP, the tax assessment register has been computerised, making it difficult to tamper with the document.

Bommanahalli ARO M Basavaraj admitted that touts used to roam around freely until recently. “They (touts) had become a big problem. They used to create a ruckus over property matters. Recently, steps were taken to prevent them from entering the office,” he added.

BBMP commissioner G Kumar Naik and Special Commissioner (Welfare) V Rashmi were not available for comment.