Citizens will get e-khata within seven to 10 days of submitting applications. Mangaluru City Corporation will make the new version available to the public from September 12.
MCC commissioner Akshy Sridhar, during the launch of the modified version on Wednesday told reporters that Mangaluru was selected as a pilot project initiated by the e-governance department to simplify the e-aasthi software for the benefit of citizens. Based on its success, it will be extended to all other corporations in the state.
Since e-aasthi was launched in the year 2020, the MCC has issued 23,000 e-khatas. However, it will take anything between 30 days to three months or even more to process the applications. Technical glitches were hampering the process. The server of the e-aasthi was with the Karnataka Municipal Data Society. Now the existing database and services are being migrated to the state data centre of the National Informatics Centre, he said.
The new e-aasthi version is citizen-centric. From the department, it moves to the citizen for initiation of application and identifying the property on the ground. A user-friendly map-based mobile application is designed to be used by the citizens for locating their respective properties and applying for khata.
Using the link for applying e-khata, the applicants must upload a photo of the property from the spot. The MCC already has a comprehensive list of the properties in its jurisdiction including a drone survey map of 20 wards that was conducted as part of the waterfront project.
After uploading the property photo, the applicant must visit MangaluruOne and apply for e-khata by submitting a scanned copy of the title deed and other supporting documents. Once all the documents are uploaded, it reaches the concerned section in the MCC and the e-khata will be issued within seven to 10 days. The approved e-khata can be downloaded from the portal, he said.
Mangaluru mayor Premanand Shetty said that earlier, officials had to visit the spot for surveying the property. “As there is a shortage of staff, it was taking a long time to process it. After the problem of issuing e-khata was brought to the notice of the state government, district in-charge secretary V Ponnuraj, who is also the secretary, department of personnel and administrative reforms (e-Governance) and district minister Sunil Kumar, a meeting was held and it was decided to take up the modification of the software by taking Mangaluru as a pilot project.
The pending e-khata applications will be completed by this weekend,” he said. MLAs Vedavyas Kamath and Dr Bharath Shetty Y were present at the event.