Karnataka Deputy CM Shivakumar Heads to Delhi for Key Congress Meetings

"I am meeting Congress leaders who have called me to Delhi. During my Delhi visit, apart from political meetings, I will also be meeting Union Jal Shakti Ministry officials and legal experts," he said.

On March 10, Shivakumar will complete six years as the president of the Karnataka Congress.

"It is my duty to meet our MPs and party leaders. I keep meeting them, and during those meetings I share my difficulties, concerns, anger, as well as your happiness and aspirations," he said.

Shivakumar said he will leave for Delhi with the Chief Minister's permission.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar loyalist MLA Iqbal Hussain has urged Siddaramaiah to allow Shivakumar to lead the state. "You speak of equality and socialism; this is the time to put that ideology into practice," Hussain said.

Senior Congress H.C. Balakrishna also said that the changes are bound to happen and nobody can stop them. "When a decision is taken, the matter will be settled," Balakrishna said.

Shivakumar, who is also the Bengaluru Urban Development Minister, speaking to the media at Vidhana Soudha after distributing khata certificates to beneficiaries who had completed khata conversion, stated that a total of 25 lakh properties across Bengaluru city have been digitised so far.

"Nine lakh e-khatas have been issued to citizens. All municipal corporations have been instructed to launch a special free e-khata drive," he said.

Shivakumar added that the digitisation of property records is one of the most important decisions of this year, as this issue had never come to the forefront for the past 50 years.

"Earlier, the Bhoomi project was introduced to digitise agricultural land. We have now embarked on digitising all property records in Bengaluru by scanning documents and introducing the e-khata system. Our objective is to prevent tax leakage. We have enabled verification through the Kaveri software at sub-registrar offices. In addition, arrangements have been made to link every document with Aadhaar," he said.

Shivakumar said that anyone can obtain an e-khata without paying a single rupee in bribe.

"I have instructed that khata certificates should be delivered to people's doorsteps. This is one of the most satisfying decisions of my life. Many people did not even know in whose name their properties were registered," he said.

He further pointed out that, seeing this work, the Central government has issued appreciation letters to our officials.

"This is a scheme to issue A-khata through the Uniform Land Record Management System for those holding B-khata. Already, 7,000 applications have been received, and lakhs more are expected," he said.

Shivakumar added that for those who have already applied, the state government has set a 15-day timeline for conversion from B-khata to A-khata. Officials will conduct site inspections while issuing khatas.

- IANS