With an eye on both civic and Assembly elections, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) 2022-23 Budget has allocated funds for various development works. The outlay of the Budget that was initially around ₹9,000 crore was increased to over ₹10,000 crore to fund proposed projects. But where is the money coming from?
BBMP seems to be banking on khata regularisation for this. The Budget has estimated revenue of ₹1,000 crore from this source. These will include the regularisation charges that citizens will have to pay to convert B-Khata to A-Khata. As per the civic body’s estimates, there are over 6 lakh B-Khata properties, including vacant sites, in the 198 wards in the city.
The administrative reforms committee had recently recommended conversion of khata after framing suitable rules under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961. Even the State Budget had stated that the issue would be examined in light of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and Karnataka Land Revenue Act.
But can the BBMP expect to get this revenue this fiscal is the question that many former councillors and even MLAs are asking. “Neither legal scrutiny of the subject nor a policy formulation has happened on the matter. It was included at the last minute to fill the hole in the budget estimates. Without even fixing a fee for regularisation, it is yet to be ascertained how it was decided that ₹1,000 crore could be garnered,” said a BJP MLA, who wished to remain anonymous.
Another MLA said B-Khata conversion was a “big issue” in the city, which, if resolved, will be an achievement for the BJP government. However, in the absence of any practical legal punitive measures for such B-Khata properties over the last decades, asking people to pay a penalty/fee for regularisation this year when polls are expected to be scheduled would not be popular either, he said.
“People are just recovering from the pandemic. Asking them to pay a penalty/fee to regularise their properties will not yield great results. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) embarked on a similar programme to regularise developments that have come up in lands notified by it to mobilise nearly ₹ 3,000 crore during the pandemic. However, not much came off it,” the MLA stated and added that it was unlikely that the civic body would be able to mobilise the additional ₹ 1,000 crore through this source.
A senior civic official admitted that this would mean that the increased outlay, if not mobilised, would get added to the fiscal deficit. “Even when the civic body has no matching funds, either of its own or from State government grants, the BBMP has not stopped issuing job codes for works to be taken up,” the official pointed out and stated that the fiscal deficit would only exacerbate the pending bills problem of the BBMP.
