E-khata chaos: Helplines of no help, property owners in Bengaluru at their wits’ end | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Flat owners, already caught in BBMP’s e-khata chaos, have a new headache: Navigating the civic body’s own helplines. Instead of offering solutions, the helplines and officials are trapping e-khata holders in a maddening loop that ends with nothing.Take the case of its much-publicised helpline number 1533 or WhatsApp number 9480683695. For citizens struggling with discrepancies in parking lot dimensions, these helplines are supposed to provide relief. But, not so in reality.Anand Kumar, a senior citizen from Kanakapura Road, said: “I wanted to file objections and contacted the local BBMP revenue official, but he told me to approach special commissioner Munish Moudgil in the BBMP head office. When I went to the central office at Hudson Circle, I was told to call the BBMP helpline. Initially, the helplines did not work. When someone finally answered, I was again redirected to the local revenue official. I am only going around in circles with no solution at sight.”When TOI decided to put the numbers to test, the experience was in sync with residents’ complaints. At 1.25pm, the reporter dialled 1533. A recorded voice answered: “Press 1 for Kannada, Press 2 for English.” After pressing 2, the same prompt repeated in a loop, and the call disconnected after three attempts. In the second attempt, the reporter pressed 1, but the loop continued until the call was dropped again. The entire sequence was recorded on video. Later, at 4:57pm, the e-khata helpline (9480683695) was tried. A recorded message asked the caller to “hold the line” as the line was busy. After waiting nearly seven minutes, the call disconnected automatically. A second attempt at 5:21pm met with the same fate.Residents say this is not an isolated glitch but a persistent failure. “It’s impossible to get through. I’ve tried more than 20 times in the last week,” said Shalini Rao, a resident of JP Nagar. She added, “Even if you’re lucky enough to connect, you either get disconnected midway or are stuck in endless loops.”Ramesh Gowda from Yelahanka, a sports teacher at a private school, recounted a similar experience: “I needed to clarify a mismatch in my property details. The helpline was my first option, but after repeated failures, I had to take half-a-day’s leave to go to the revenue office, where I was told to come back another day because the official concerned was busy.”With citizens’ frustration mounting, civic activists said BBMP must urgently overhaul its grievance-redress system. “A helpline that doesn’t connect is worse than no helpline at all — it erodes public trust,” said Vinod Kumar, member of a residents’ welfare association.A senior revenue official said, “We are a team of 12 and each of us gets almost 100 calls daily, how can we answer all? We are trying our best to help, but if citizens are at fault and they keep pressing the panic button, we cannot do anything.”