Senior citizens offered logistical support to the Jana Sevaka team during the e-khata camp at Purva Seasons in C. V. Raman Nagar, Bengaluru on April 12-13, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Dhiraj Shetty
The painful process of getting e-khata turned into a pleasant experience for the residents of an apartment complex in east Bengaluru last weekend.
Frustrated by the BBMP portal, which sometimes did not accept documents or allow entry of data, and at other times got stuck in the middle of the process, the residents sought assistance from Jana Sevaka, which was launched by the government of Karnataka to provide doorstep delivery of services to citizens.
On April 12-13, the Jana Sevaka team set up camp in Purva Seasons at C. V. Raman Nagar, and helped residents get the e-khata.
An RWA member estimates that up to 350 residents approached the Jana Sevaka team during the two-day camp.
Jana Sevaka came into being in 2019. Among their notable achievements is taking the process of making Aadhaar cards to the doorstep of senior citizens and disabled persons. The Jana Sevaka team charges a fee for their service.
According to a member of the Jana Sevaka team, when they were told by the government of Karnataka to help with e-khatas, the team first learnt about the documents required and the process. After becoming familiar with the process, they began accepting requests to visit apartments to help property owners get the e-khata.
The RWA member said, “We were advised by Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) to approach the Jana Sevaka team to organise an e-khata camp in our apartment complex. Besides e-khata, the Jana Sevaka team helped with Aadhaar enrolment for newborns, and for small kids because of the GoI requirement to update Aadhaar details once every 10 years.”
Address change was another requirement since a lot of residents had moved to Bengaluru and made the city their home.
Joe Eipe, a resident of Purva Seasons, said, “My mother Annamma Eipe, who is aged 91, was the oldest person to avail of their service here. She finished updating her Aadhaar in less than 5 minutes. When she initially made her Aadhaar card, she did not have an email address or mobile number, and also the Aadhaar card centre was far from her home. Also, she was apprehensive of brokers and agents you find in all these centres who fleece you and trick you into revealing your personal information. She is among the satisfied customers of Jana Sevaka because now she can avail so many services, that she could not in the past, sitting at home because her mobile number was updated. There were many other senior citizens like her at the camp.”
According to one resident, “The camp was especially useful for senior citizens who are not computer literate.”
Common problems with e-khata process
Vishnu Gattupalli, General Secretary, BAF, says, “We noticed that property owners faced two main problems while trying to get e-khata.
- Errors in BBMP data base
- Errors in case of joint ownership
“In case of errors and joint ownership, owners had to get in touch with the ARO or other BBMP officials to resolve the problem.”
At a personal level, Vishnu made a video on how to get e-khata to help his neighbours. While helping his neighbours get the e-khata, he got to observe the improvements in the system. He says, “The BBMP team seems to have taken all the feedback they were getting. Their system has been getting better since the launch in October 2024.”
Ajay Mehrotra, member of the governing council of BAF and a resident of Wilson Manor at Wilson Garden, says, “The Jana Sevaka team helped around 100 residents in our community get the e-khata. I believe that up to 50 apartment complexes across Bengaluru may have used their services so far.”
The e-khata journey
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On October 1, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) launched e-khata, a digitally-processed khata issuance system for the citizens of the State capital of Karnataka.
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Until then, records of the 22 lakh properties in the jurisdiction of BBMP were being maintained manually in physical registers in over 5,500 ledgers. The same has been digitised. Digitisation began in 2023 on the directions of Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar.
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The e-khata system is expected to reduce pain points for property buyers in the process of preparing and procuring land ownership documents.
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But, residents have complained of the BBMP portal being unresponsive, not accepting documents, getting stuck mid-way, and, in general, making the task very painful.
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The government of Karnataka has been responding, as quickly as possible, to the feedback from property owners.
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In January 2025, in a bid to speed up the issuance of e-Khata, the BBMP announced that Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and citizen groups can organise e-khata camps in their neighbourhood.
Vishnu Gattupalli says, “The e-khata initiative is a big help for property owners. In December 2024, BBMP Special Commissioner (Revenue) Munish Moudgil came for a Q&A with BAF members and very patiently answered every question. To give credit where it is due, the government has been going all out to help people get e-khata.”
Published – April 23, 2025 09:17 am IST
