Two suspended BBMP ARO's -- Santoshkumar Izeri, Assistant Revenue Officer (Basavanagudi) and MH Swamy, Assistant Revenue Officer (Girinagara).
Girinagar, Basavanagudi Asst Revenue Officers had uploaded note asking online khata applicants to ‘please contact ARO office’
BENGALURU:
BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta has suspended two Assistant Revenue Officers for uploading a digital note asking khata applicants to ‘please contact the ARO office’.
The suspension has become a hot topic amongst revenue staff in BBMP. The two suspended AROs are MH Swamy (Girinagar) and Santoshkumar Izeri (Basavanagudi).
The suspension orders were issued on the recommendations made by Special Commissioner (Revenue) Basavaraj, Joint Commissioner (Revenue) M Venkatachalapathy and the Revenue Officer (Sakala project).
ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಿ: ಬಿಬಿಎಂಪಿ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥರಿಂದ ಗಿರಿನಗರ, ಬಸವನಗುಡಿ ಸಹಾಯಕ ಕಂದಾಯ ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳು ಅಮಾನತ
As per the suspension order, a copy of which was accessed by TheBengaluruLive, both the AROs had cleared around 244 and 234 khata transfer applications respectively, submitted under the Sakala project from January 1, 2021 till July 9, 2021.
Applicants met ACS
Despite the applicants paying the requisite khata fees, the two AROs did not update the khata extract and khata certificate on the portal under the Sakala project. On the contrary, both the officers posted a digital note asking the applicants to ‘please contact the ARO office’ — following which a few aggrieved applicants approached Additional Chief Secretary (E-Governance) Rajeev Chawla. According to sources, some of the applicants contacted Chawla seeking justice in the matter of the delay in obtaining khata documents under the Sakala project.


Under the Sakala project, BBMP aims to transfer khata extracts and khata certificates through the online process within 30 days (if all the documents are found to be correct). But the entire BBMP bureaucracy was shocked to learn of the two AROs’ ‘actions’ during the review meeting held by Additional Chief Secretary (E-Governance) Rajeev Chawla on June 29, 2021. Following the incident, Chawla directed the Revenue Officer (Sakala project) to place a proposal for strict action against the two officers in the matter of khata transfers under the Sakala project.
Pressure to revoke suspensions
Following the recommendations by the top officials of BBMP, Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta issued an order suspending MH Swamy and Izeri on July 16. However, sources say Gupta is now being politically pressurised to revoke the suspensions of the two AROs.
