Ex-chief secretary, High Court judges among those denied e-khata in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: High court judges, both serving and retired, a former chief secretary, athletes and some well-known persons are among the thousands of property owners in Bengaluru whose e-khata applications have been rejected without a valid reason, sources in the know say.

According to informed sources, in the last three months, nearly 25,000 e-khata applications have been rejected in the Greater Bengaluru Area (GBA) limits, raising concerns about corruption among officials. 

To keep a check on the rejections, the GBA has now formed a dedicated team that will review all the rejected applications and check if the rejections are due to genuine reasons. 

A man residing in Jayanagar since 1959 said he was shocked to find out that his e-khata application had been rejected. The case worker concerned had approved his application after he submitted all the required records.

The resident, who didn’t want to be named, said there were no grounds for rejecting his application. 

As complaints started pouring in, senior officials were forced to check the records to ascertain the genuineness of these rejections.

In the Jayanagar resident’s case, officials observed that the rejection was done on false grounds despite the applicant uploading the absolute sale deed and all required documents. Following this, senior officials have suspended the revenue officer and the zonal deputy commissioner involved in the matter. 

“Though there is a system where applications rejected by assistant revenue officers have to be checked by revenue officers and further by the deputy commissioner, rejections for genuine applications have continued. Citizens are unnecessarily being harassed,” a senior official said.  The sources said senior officials feel there is a need for exemplary action against erring officials since they were bringing a bad name to the GBA and harassing innocent applicants. During a recent media interaction, GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao said special surveillance teams will scrutinise the rejected applications and fast-track the processing of applications. 

The government has been pushing citizens to get e-khatas for their properties and the GBA is also planning to set up passport service-style seva kendras to help citizens get their e-khata without much difficulty.  As of December first week, the GBA has received nearly 8.2 lakh e-khata applications.