Bengaluru :  The Karnataka Government plans to abolish the posts of four regional commissioners and instead establish a regional commissionerate at Bengaluru. Speaking to the media on Thursday, Revenue Minister Mr R Ashoka said that the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission which recently submitted its report to the Chief Minister had recommended that all the four Regional Commissioners offices may be abolished and instead Revenue Commissionerate established at the State level.

“I have been thinking on these lines for the last six months as the regional commissioners’ offices have turned out to be white elephants. For example, we have been spending crores of rupees on these offices. Each of these offices has more than 125 staff working. However, on the utilisation part, all the four regional commissioners’ offices have received only 250 appeals so far. This is nothing but wastage of resources. Hence, we will take a call on this in the next fortnight. I have already held discussions with Chief Secretary Mr P Ravi Kumar and Revenue Department’s Principal Secretary N Manjunath Prasad regarding this. If we abolish the regional commissioners’ posts, then we can save a lot of money. The existing manpower can be redeployed to various deputy commissioners’ offices across the state which is facing a severe shortage of manpower. We are planning to have a revenue commissionerate at Bengaluru which can hear the appeals against the deputy commissioners across the State”, Mr Ashoka said.

Model Tenancy Act
The Karnataka Government now plans to introduce the Model Tenancy Act in Karnataka. Revenue Minister Mr R Ashoka said, “We are simplifying the current tenancy act. Earlier, the government had a role in fixing the rent. However, we now propose that the rent should be fixed by both the parties (owners and tenants) and after reaching an agreement, they need to finalise it legally and then upload it in the portal. In case of any dispute, the concerned officials will resolve it in less than 60 days. We are planning that the disputes should be settled within 60 days and even if anyone plans to postpone the hearing, there won’t be anything more than three chances. Currently, around two to three lakh houses are vacant in Bengaluru alone. We hope that once this act is implemented in State, the owners will get their tenants while the rents may also come down. This is just a proposal and we are expecting feedback from the public before we officially introduce this in Karnataka.” The Union Cabinet in the first week of June had approved the Model Tenancy Act and sent it for circulation to all the States for adaptation by way of enacting fresh legislation or amending the existing rental laws suitably.

Rs 1 lakh financial aid for BPL families
Mr Ashoka informed that he has signed an order for providing financial aid of Rs 1 lakh for BPL family members if one of their family members had died of Covid.

Revenue Minister asks officials to take up flood prevention measures in Padmanabhanagar constituency

Revenue Minister Mr R Ashoka launched a number of developmental works in Padmanabhanagar constituency on Thursday. He launched the renovation work of Rajakaluve in Dattatreya Nagar which was prone to flooding during the rainy season. Then, he conducted bhoomi pooja for flood prevention measures in Gururaja Layout. He then inspected the drainage repair work in Samruddhi layout. Finally, Mr Ashoka launched the road development works in CT Bed area in Ganesh Mandir ward. Mr R Ashoka who has been distributing food kits to various communities and sectors, distributed food kits to Brahmin community members who were severely hit by the Covid second wave.