The Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj has issued a circular, restricting gram panchayats across the state from approving or sanctioning building/layout plans for Deputy DC converted lands.

This will certainly affect many Bangaloreans living in the erstwhile Bangalore Rural district (now part of the BBMP) and areas surrounding municipal towns.

To regulate the illegal sanction of lands and rampant flouting of layout development and property registration norms, the department has taken this initiative,said a senior official at the RDPR.

The circular notifies that GPs across the state do not have any legal authority to sanction building plans/alteration in the panchayat limits.

It also clearly mandates all buildings should be approved by BDA, BMRDA BMICAPA, BIAPPA, or any other town municipal authority governing the area.

Firslty, Sir, when in the said year where the layout plan was approved by the gram panchayat may be that was the only authority to do so, and if not then since then some other authority may have objected to it.

Secondly, even now also as we say that the BDA has the authority to do so then also it doesn’t mean that the then layout plan was illegal.

Thirdly, sometimes it is also for the authority to see if any wrong going on the name of their department.

Fourhtly, if any problem arises then with all these reasons you can approach the BMD for approval now.

Yes if at relevant point of time.the land was in panchay limits the panchayat had authority to sanction plans.

In karnataka under the panchayat raj act and further amendment rules under the panchayat raj rules the gram panchayat has power to approve the plans .

A. At that time, Municipal Corporation or Local Town Municipality or Taluk Municipal has the authority to issue approval of the layout under the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 and The Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961

B. As per the Karnataka Panchyath Raj Act, 1993, Grama Panchyath could have been issue license for construction of building and collect property tax not approval of layout like Corporation or Development Authority. Grama Panchyath had no power to issue the layout approval plan as the Panchyath Raj Act not permitted the same. Percontra, most of the Secratory or President of Grama Panchyath was putting seal and signature of the layout plan designed by the Civil Engineer without compliance any rules and regulation and their activity was ultra virus.

C. In addition to the above, when a property is coming under the municipality or corporation limit and If CDP or ODP recognized the land that conversion of the land also not required if the land owner has been paid prescribed betterment fee (High Court upheld the same in many judgements) to the Government.

Dear Sir,

My answers are as follows..

Can 1993/94 gram panchayat layout approve be legal? If yes any supporting notification. If NO then who was the approving authority? If it was BDA/BMRDA the approving authority what were the jurisdiction limits of these authorities in 1992/93/94?

Ans; Even now the gram panchayats approving the plans if the area is not covered by other statutory authorities like BDA/BNRDA etc. Yours is a legally approved plan. The law is as follows:

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What is a khata?

A Khata is essentially a revenue document, detailing the assessment of a property, recording details about the property such as size, location, built up area and so on for the purpose of payment of property tax.

It is also a kind of identification of the person who is primarily liable for payment of property tax. It is one of the required documents in case you require a building licence, trade licence or loan from banks or any other financial institutions.

What is the difference between an A Khata and B Khata?

What any property buyer should know while buying property in Bangalore is that it should have A khata.

An A khata means you are buying a property that is legal, and it will allow you to construct on it and obtain a trade or building license. Here are some further details on the difference between A Khata and B Khata.

Then how did the term B Khata come into being?

Well in 2007 when BBMP came into being 2 things were apparent:

1) There were many properties that fell under its jurisdiction that were illegal constructions

2) There was a need for an uniform taxation policy

Regarding the former the BBMP found that these illegal constructions were enjoying civic amenities without paying taxes. While regarding the latter, there was a need to consolidate the tax collection process to make it simpler which was earlier collected by 3 different bodies.

Now, the newly formed BBMP had the power to levy taxes on the aforementioned illegal constructions. The taxes collected from these properties were recorded in a register known in common parlance as B register and the khata issued therein was known as a B khata.

Thus anyone having a B khatha essentially is a non BBMP approved construction. Hence it is not advisable to buy such properties.

However, it is only fair to mention that any B khata property can be converted into an A khata property.

The approval granted by the Hullimavu Gram Panchayath is valid and legal, based on which Form-9 Katha was also issued in respect of the site formed in the layout.

Post which the lands have fallen within the jurisdiction of B.B.M.P, which has proceeded to issue 'A' Katha in respect of the site as well. which only confirms that the B.B.M.P has accepted the approval given by Hullimavu Gram Panchayath.

The layout plan approved by Gram Panchayat in the year 1993 is very much valid.

They were the authority to approve plans during those days.

The approval by competent authority i.e., BBMP or BDA or BMRDA was implemented as recently as the year 2007 only.

1. Gram Panchayat is only a Tax collecting authority for various constructions within its zonal jurisdictions. They do not have any authority to decide or approve or sanction any layout plans.

2. Layout Plans of any agricultural or non-agricultural Lands, are within the realm of the Revenue Dept. (means the Tahsil /Collector office) and nobody else.

Keep Smiling .... Hemant Agarwal