A large number of land developers and builders are said to developing illegal properties in Bengaluru due to a nexus between the corrupt revenue officials and the real estate developers. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has estimated that around 2 lakh properties coming under ‘B’ Khata category have been given an 'A' Khata certificate and a majority of them are in the developing areas of the city.
BBMP is now said to have initiated ward-wise verification by its personnel, to ascertain the genuine ownership of properties.
Last Monday, M Shivaraju, the Chairman of Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance, BBMP had directed officials to revoke the Khata certificate of 590 illegally acquired properties in Bommanahalli, Bengaluru.
When Shivaraju conducted an appraisal meeting at the Bommanahalli zone with regards to the Revenue and Advertisement collection in Bommanahalli and Rajarajeshwari Nagara zones, residents of the area presented their grievances over the existence of illegal properties.
Taking cognizance of their complaints, he enquired with the officers concerned who confirmed that 590 illegal properties were recorded in the property register.
Shivaraju instructed the officials to cancel all fake Khatas of such properties and directed them to initiate legal action against the owners of such properties
Officials have also been told to pro-actively work toward determining the top 25 property tax defaulters in every ward and ensure proper action is initiated against them and dues are recovered.
Which is an illegal Khata?
When agriculture land is converted for non-agriculture use, an ‘A’ Khata is issued to the owner, after the lay-out plan is approved by the competent authority.
Layouts which don’t have proper land conversion and plan sanction would not be granted an ‘A’ Khata.
If such ‘B’ Khata properties are given ‘A’ Khata certificates at the time of property registration, then it amounts to a violation of rules and would be considered as an illegal property.
The Bommanhalli crackdown marks the first clean-up act among many more to come after the BBMP was questioned about discrepancies in tax collection.
