State government rolls out GBA afresh to improve governance in the city: DKS

Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Monday said the State government has rolled out the GBA afresh to improve governance in the city and is proceeding with elections in line with court verdicts and directions. 

Addressing concerns over civic administration, Mr. Shivakumar said the government has undertaken large-scale digitisation of municipal records to plug revenue leakage. This includes scanning of documents and the introduction of the e-Khata system. He said the Cauvery software has been implemented to prevent tax leakage and that records of around 25 lakh properties have been digitised so far, with 9.5 lakh e-Khata documents already issued to property owners. 

The Deputy Chief Minister said steps have been taken to ensure transparency and prevent corruption in the system. He added that officials have been instructed to provide access to the application free of cost, noting that several property owners were earlier unaware of details related to their own properties.

Mr. Shivakumar also claimed that the Centre had acknowledged the digitisation efforts, stating that Central government officials had appreciated the implementation, interacted with State officials and issued certificates in recognition of the work done. 

On property regularisation, he said the process of converting B-Khata properties to A-Khata has begun, with around 7,000 applications received so far, and more expected in the coming days. A time limit of 15 days has been fixed for completing the conversion process, he added. 

Rejecting the criticism that development initiatives in Bengaluru had slowed down, the Deputy Chief Minister  said several infrastructure works are underway. He said the government is carrying out white-topping of roads across 1,600 km, has taken up street-lighting works and has prioritised traffic improvement measures.