The BBMP will set up a committee headed by a retired IAS officer to investigate the alleged irregularities in its Revenue Department.
A decision to this effect was taken after many councillors alleged irregularities in the department at a council meeting on Monday.
Mayor B S Sathyanarayana said the committee will submit the report in the next two months.
“We shall bring it (the report) to the Council. Later, we can decide on whether to give this (case) to the Lokayukta or CID for further probe,” he added.
Yediyur councillor N R Ramesh said there are 316 tax inspectors at 66 wards in the newly-added zones.
“Among them, 172 are from (erstwhile) City Municipal Councils and remaining 144 are from village panchayats. When the BBMP was formed in 2007, many names were added to the list of officers by creating fake attendance registers. The tax inspectors, who are working in the same office for more than 10 years, are involved in corruption,” he alleged.
Ramesh also said BBMP is not allotting A khatas to revenue sites for the past four years. There is a need to collect betterment charges from the owners before giving A khatas, he declared.
“As a petition related to collecting betterment charges is pending in the High Court, the BBMP is issuing only B khatas. In spite of this, the officials working in the newly-added zones are modifying original documents to issue A khatas. In future, if we collect betterment charges, the BBMP will get revenue,” he said.
Adding to this, former Mayor S K Nataraj said that village accountants are issuing A khatas at the newly-added zones.
“When I was mayor, betterment charges of `550 per metre was fixed and we passed the resolution. It was questioned in the HC. Let us reduce the betterment charges to `250 to 300 per square metre. The BBMP will get `6,000 crore in revenue,” he said. He also said the civic body had collected `100 per square metre as betterment charges for revenue sites in 1996. The then BMP had got `2,000 crore in revenue, he recalled.
V V Puram councillor Anil urged the Mayor and the Commissioner to cancel A khatas allotted illegally.
“A few days ago, BBMP transferred some tax inspectors to outer zones. But the old tax inspectors are not allowing them to work. There is a mafia,” he charged.
J P Park ward councillor B R Nanjundappa said that if tax inspectors are involved, their higher authorities—from revenue inspector to zonal commissioners— are also involved in this as these files reach them too.