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A committee tasked with investigating allegations of A-khata fraud in Bengaluru has uncovered a staggering 9,736 properties that were illegally registered as A-khata. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has taken the decision to revert them back to the B-khata registry.
The issue was initially brought to the attention of the civic body on January 4, when former councillor NR Ramesh filed a complaint highlighting irregularities in the conversion of B-khata properties to A-khata. Seeking action to be taken, Ramesh's complaint prompted the formation of a review committee by the Palike on February 21, with the purpose of verifying all the allegedly illegal A-khata properties.
In order to conduct a thorough investigation, the BBMP instructed revenue officials to prepare detailed reports on the allegations of illegal conversions from B-khata to A-khata, which were to be submitted to the review committee by March 24. However, due to the assembly polls, the submission date was extended to April 10. The reports, unfortunately, were not submitted within the given timeframe. It wasn't until June that the revenue officials finally submitted their reports to the review committee. The findings revealed a shocking number of 9,736 properties that had been issued illegal A-khatas.
According to data provided by the BBMP, illegal A-khatas were found in all eight zones of the city. The Bommanahalli zone topped the list with 4,008 cases, followed by Rajarajeshwarinagar with 3,666 cases. The south zone had only one instance of illegal A-khata. To rectify the situation, all the illegally issued A-khatas will be reverted back to B-khatas.
BBMP sources have revealed that assistant revenue officials were responsible for issuing A-khatas. Palike officials suspect the involvement of multiple revenue officials in this fraudulent scheme and have assured that appropriate action will be taken against them once their role is confirmed.
In March, the committee focused on verifying A-khata properties in the Anjanapura subdivision of the Bommanahalli zone. Initially, assistant revenue officials and other staff members denied the presence of any illegal A-khata properties in their subdivision. However, during the verification process, it was discovered that there were, in fact, 698 illegal A-khata properties across two wards. Specifically, 357 properties were found to have been illegally transferred from the B-khata registry to the A-khata registry in Gottigere, while Anjanapura had 341 similar instances. Assistant revenue officials certified these findings.
Moving forward, the review committee will closely scrutinize the subdivision-wise reports of the identified illegal A-khatas. Assistant revenue officials responsible for the respective areas will face disciplinary action within the department and potential criminal charges if they fail to include details of any illegal A-khata properties in their reports.
To provide some clarity, A-khata properties are those with genuine and verified documents approved by state agencies. On the other hand, B-khata properties exhibit anomalies in their documentation, including constructions without the necessary permissions from relevant authorities or plots lacking authorization for land-use conversion.
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