Obtaining khatas is known to be an ordeal in itself. It is not uncommon to hear BBMP officials demanding various sums of money to 'get the work done'. In the past few weeks several residents in Bengaluru have narrated stories of how much money they doled out to get a khata.

But there is also a success story amidst them, which has inspired many others in the city to follow suit.

Fifty families residing at Suncity Apartments on Sarjapur Road applied for khatas with the BBMP and obtained the registration document last year. All this without paying a single rupee as bribe. "It was a miracle to everyone that BBMP gave khatas without charging money", exclaim Ashok Kumar Dubey and Hariprakash Agrawal, members of Suncity Apartment Owners Association (SAOA). Their achievement was also covered in two local newspapers.

The SAOA then went onto to publish their work through a website where they also guide residents in other parts of the city, encouraging them to take the 'clean' route while applying for khatas.

The Suncity Apartment Owners Association got 50 khatas for residents in their complex without paying any bribe. Residents from across the city now contact them for guidance on khata registration. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal

In an interview with Citizen Matters, Agrawal (Founder-member, SAOA) and Dubey (Executive committee member, SAOA) narrate their exhaustive khata registration experience and how they got through it by sticking together. They also share tips on how residents can take up such an exercise and avoid handing out bribes to government officials.

Here are excerpts of the interview.

Could you briefly explain the khata registration experience at Suncity apartments?

Hariprakash Agrawal: It started about two years back. Four-five people from Suncity thought they should go through without giving any bribe. They filed their applications. They followed up for about two-three months. They didn't get any response. Then they filed an RTI application. They got a response saying the khata is ready and will reach them in a week. In their RTI application, they had asked questions like why the delay in getting khata, who are the officials responsible and so on. But they didn't get responses to all that. They got the khata in a week. Once we had this success story, I put it on Vicharpravah (A website hosted by Agrawal where information on khata registration is available).

Suncity itself has about 1200 flats. About 200 had already paid bribe and got khatas. There were still about 800-900 of us who were yet to get khata. So we thought of following up with MLA (Satish Reddy, MLA, Bommanahalli assembly constituency). We requested him to come to Suncity and we had a good gathering. We asked why there's a delay in getting khatas. He promised that BBMP officials will conduct a camp at Suncity. A camp was held the following week. About 100 people applied and got an acknowledgement. This happened in February 2009. As an association, we collected all the common documents, photocopied them, we publicised this. So the MLA's promise worked. But the work we had to do was follow-up.

"We told them (officials) that the more they delay, the more we'll sit on their head. Ultimately we got the khatas."

We got acknowledgements but there was no progress. (Ashok Kumar) Dubey did lots of follow-ups. After two-three months we again approached the MLA. We wrote a letter to him with names of all the flat-owners who had applied and told him the applications are still stuck. After some phone calls, we finally got khatas for about 50 flats on August 15th 2009. We invited the MLA and he distributed the khatas which we got without bribe.

It's so common for people to take the 'easy' route where you pay money and get the khata. Why did you decide to take the 'clean' route?

Ashok Kumar Dubey: I was in public sector for 22 years. I've never taken any bribe. So when this came to our apartment, I decided that I will not pay bribe. Even if I have khata, I'm not going to sell my flat. Khata is required only when you are going to sell your flat. In the mean time, these five residents of our apartment got it without paying bribe. So then hundreds of us joined this. We invited the MLA for a public meeting. He brought all the BBMP officials to look at our grievances. There we raised this problem of having to pay Rs 10,000 to 15,000 for khatas.

See, once we get acknowledgement, it means the process has begun. We went back and forth. Finally we told the BBMP officials that we are inviting the MLA to distribute, you decide if you want to give us the khatas or not. Then the day before this, one of the officials sat till 9 in the night and 50 khatas were ready. There was some documentation problem with the remaining 50 khatas.

It was a miracle to everyone that BBMP gave khatas without charging money. Those 50 khatas are still pending. We haven't been able to follow-up much.

Speaking from experience, Suncity Apartment Owners Association recommends the following while applying for khata.

• Go in a group. It's easier to follow-up that way as this is a time-consuming process.
• If you don't get any response from BBMP after 2-3 months, file an RTI application.
• Approach your local MLA or corporator for assistance. They will put a word to the BBMP officials.
• Approach senior BBMP officials at the zonal level if you counter any problems.

 

How cooperative were BBMP officials through all of this?

Dubey: We met the Joint Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. They said they'll get it done. There was this official at the revenue department, she said it'll take time. I asked her to give me a time - one month, one week - so that I could go back to her after that. She asked me to come after a week. She then sent the papers to the Bellandur BBMP office.

There also we had to coax the officials. It's not so easy. They are not available most of the time. They say they are outside in a meeting or something. But we just followed-up. We told them that whatever they do we won't bribe them. We told them that the more they delay, the more we'll sit on their head. Ultimately we got it.

At any point, did residents at Suncity feel this effort is too tedious and thought it would be easier to just pay and get the khatas?

Agrawal: See there were all kinds of people. Many people are abroad. They don't understand the process. And this really takes time. Some people definitely took the route of paying bribes. But there were many who were with the association. We had a bunch of really good senior citizens who did the follow-up. Many of us are professionals and we don't have time to work on this on a routine basis.

But it's a matter of pride for us for having done something that's not so easy. The RTI process also helped. Three-four years back RTI was not known. There are many people today who don't want to pfif theyay a bribe. But at times the situation itself maybe tricky that you don't know what to do. People do lose patience.

But right now I see a good vibe, some people have been waiting for one year. But you have to be patient. People are not fussy and that's good news.

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Vaishnavi Vittal

01 Jul 2010

Vaishnavi Vittal is a staff journalist with Citizen Matters.

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