BENGALURU: The Legislative Assembly on Friday passed the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026 that will enable the A khata framework beyond Bengaluru to municipal corporations, municipalities, and gram panchayats across the state.
Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the amendment is expected to provide a major relief to lakhs of property owners living in unauthorised layouts for the past several decades. “Under the new provisions, roads within such unauthorised layouts can be officially declared as public roads, which will make way for eligible properties to be upgraded from B khata to A khata,” Gowda said.
The minister, who tabled the Bill on Friday, said thousands of unauthorised layouts have come up across the state in the last four decades. “Though there is a law, successive governments did not do anything much about it. On the other hand, layout developers, too, ignored the law, leaving property owners in the lurch,” he said.
He pointed out that many such layouts do not have properly laid wide asphalt roads, electricity, underground drainage, drinking water facilities, stormwater drains and other infrastructure. Gowda said that when poorly planned layouts were created, the property owners were also denied clear ownership rights.
Earlier, such property owners were issued B khata. “However, the government has taken measures to issue A khata. Only that document can provide stronger legal backing and a guarantee of ownership,” he said.
The Bill enables roads within unauthorised layouts, which are still registered in the names of original landowners, to be officially declared as “public roads” in the records of respective municipal corporations or municipalities. Once the roads are officially recognised, eligible sites and houses in such layouts can get regular A khatas, he said.
Gowda said the government is committed to providing complete property security to every property owner under the Bhoo Guarantee initiative. He said the amendment is expected to address the fundamental problems faced by property owners in unauthorised layouts. Gowda said the government had adopted a strict approach in 2024 to stop the creation of new unauthorised layouts and prevent further violations. This was started in Bengaluru and will now be extended across the state, he added.
