Representational Image of launch of E-Aasthi project.
Only 270 property owners responded in 3 pilot wards, but ‘E-Aasthi’ to be extended in due course across Bengaluru
BENGALURU:
Despite the initial poor response to the E-Asthi Digilocker pilot project on November 14 last year in three city wards – only 270 property owners have come forward to avail of the facility in the last 4 months – BBMP is pressing ahead with the new digital property documentation system and will in due course extend it to all 100 core Bengaluru wards which come under the West, East and South zones of the corporation. An indication to this effect came in a press release issued by by the office of BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad on Saturday.
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The release notes that services to taxpayers and citizens, i.e., issuing of computerised Khata extracts, Khata certificates and collection of arrears of property tax till AY 2007-2008 AY for properties in the old 100 wards were being rendered by citizen service centres and ARO offices.
The release says that “with the objective of simplifying and enhancing the services provided by the BBMP revenue department, the E-Aasthi system is being developed and implemented in a phased manner.” It notes that after the pilot scheme in 3 wards there will be a phased expansion of the system across the city.
The release adds that “transferring of data sets of properties from the old system to the E-Aasthi system is under progress, and time is required for issuing of Khata extract, Khata certificate and collection of arrears of property tax till 2007-08 AY.” It urges ‘public cooperation’ in the matter.
Ambitious project
The scheme is certainly ambitious, but the fact remains that a technologically advanced city like Bengaluru is yet to get a totally glitch-free online system for property documentation purposes. BBMP’s E-Aasthi project has 46 components, including pictures of the property and owner/s, and once it is fully operational citizens will be able to download property-related documents instead of having to make the rounds of Assistant Revenue Officers’ offices or Citizen Service Centres.
Sources in BBMP’s revenue section told TheBengaluruLive that the software has been developed for E-Aasthi but talks are still on with web hosting services as the system needs huge bandwidth, so that it does not crash when lakhs of property owners start using it. “All the trials are underway. Talks with private agencies have also been concluded. Shortly we will announce the online link which can be used by every property owner to upload the required components,” said an officer.
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Will be mandatory soon
Another officer who had monitored the implementation of the scheme in the 3 pilot wards of Shanthala Nagar, Neelasandra and Shantinagar said it drew a poor response as only 270 property owners came forward to use the E-Aasthi facility.
Explaining the possible reason for the poor response, the officer said, “A few senior citizens came forward voluntarily but in most cases we have seen that property owners came only after they went for a sale transaction to sub-registrar offices and were told to mandatorily follow the E-Aasthi procedure. As BBMP hasn’t made it mandatory, people are coming forward as and when it is required. But shortly, BBMP will make E-Aasthi compulsory.”
What is E-Aasthi
With the objective of protecting people from getting duped by fake property documents, BBMP has decided to put all property-related documents into DigiLocker. Aimed at providing paperless governance to Bengalureans via E-Aasthi – a Property Records Management System — BBMP has decided to scrap the system of paper khata certificates and extracts.
The digital E-Aasthi format has 46 components, including pictures of property and property owners, with the objective of preventing fraudulent property transactions at sub-registrar offices.
The project is a joint exercise of BBMP’s revenue department and National Informatics Centre, which has developed the E-Aasthi software.
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