With lakhs of rural property owners struggling to obtain e-Swathu (e-Khata) records due to technical and server issues, rural development and panchayat raj minister Eshwar B Khandre on Friday announced that the govt will constitute a five-member committee to resolve the problems.In a written direction to the department, Khandre said e-Swathu applications remain pending because of software and server-related issues. He directed the department to constitute a committee headed by RDPR secretary D Randeep, with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi and Belagavi districts as members.The committee has been asked to submit its recommendations within 10 days. It will identify technical and legal bottlenecks, suggest amendments to existing rules and procedures, and recommend measures to ensure doorstep delivery of e-Swathu certificates.The move comes amid mounting complaints over the implementation of e-Swathu 2.0, launched on December 1, 2025, to issue digital property records (e-Khata) for nearly one crore Gram Panchayat properties. Although the Revenue department made e-Khata mandatory for property registration from October 2024, technical glitches and legal complications have left lakhs of applications pending, severely affecting property transactions in rural areas.Property owners are unable to register, transfer, mortgage or sell their properties due to the absence of e-Khata. Legal heirs are also facing delays in securing property records.Khandre has directed the committee to recommend a mechanism for issuing e-Swathu certificates to families living in Gramathana areas for decades without ownership documents. The committee will also examine the feasibility of conducting a house survey to resolve such cases.Another key focus area is properties outside Gramathana limits, including converted and unconverted revenue lands where layouts and buildings have already come up. In many cases, Form 11B cannot be issued because the layouts allegedly include encroachments on govt land, including B Kharab and gomala land.Khandre said that to address this, the govt is examining the possibility of issuing B-Khata to eligible properties that are currently outside the Gram Panchayat tax net.Khandre said the proposed framework would facilitate the issuance of e-Swathu certificates to eligible properties while enabling Gram Panchayats to bring them under the property tax ambit.
