BENGALURU: In the backdrop of teething problems associated with e-khata system, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will rope in resident welfare associations (RWAs) to help fellow citizens understand the process that seeks to eliminate middlemen while procuring property documents.
The civic body is expected to launch training programmes for RWA representatives in the coming week and they, in turn, will help other residents in obtaining e-khata. BBMP has already set up help desks in its eight zones apart from activating Bangalore One centres for generating final e-khatas.
BBMP has uploaded 22 lakh draft e-khatas online and property owners have downloaded 6 lakh e-khatas so far. But the response from property owners hasn’t been very overwhelming about the final generation of e-khatas for various reasons, such as not knowing how to navigate the online processes, hitting roadblocks in terms of mobilising supporting documents, and trivial reasons cited by lower-rung officials not to clear requests.
BBMP has decided to train RWAs to address these challenges.
“We (BBMP) want to ensure that all RWAs are made aware of the e-khata process. As every RWA consists of multiple office-bearers, we have planned to form a core committee among themselves, educate them about e-khata and train them in obtaining it. They will help others in their societies or communities in obtaining the e-khatas,” explained BBMP special commissioner Munish Moudgil. “The contactless and faceless online e-khata system puts the citizens in control while eliminating middlemen. The idea is to de-bureaucratise the khata system so the citizens are not dependent on BBMP staff for e-khata and khata services,” he added.
Although the training programme is planned to commence on Nov 19, sources in BBMP told STOI that BBMP is still working on identifying the exact number of RWAs in Bengaluru. “We are reaching out to them on Monday followed by the outreach in all the eight zones via virtual meetings with RWA representatives,” Moudgil clarified.
The residents, while welcoming the move, said it should have happened before the e-khata rollout was announced. Arun Kumar, member of a Jayanagar RWA, said, “This training should have been part of the launch itself. Many residents struggled with technical glitches and unclear instructions while trying to download e-khata. Training RWAs is a good step, but the damage is already done to BBMP’s credibility.”
Sandhya Sharma, member of Yelahanka Rising, said, “It’s not just about training RWAs. BBMP needs to ensure that the system itself works seamlessly. Even tech-savvy residents faced issues like OTP errors and login failures. Without fixing these, training alone won’t be enough.”
