Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Sep 1: MLC Kishore Kumar has raised concerns over delays in the processing of Forms 11A and 11B under the e-Swathu 2.0 software, stating that the system has caused considerable inconvenience to the public by forcing them to make repeated visits to government offices.
The issue was raised in the Legislative Council through starred and unstarred questions (Nos 410 and 408). According to the government’s response, since the implementation of e-Swathu 2.0 on December 1, 2025, a total of 1,84,222 applications for Form 11A have been received. Of these, 1,53,795 applications have been approved, 639 rejected and 23,802 remain pending.
In Dakshina Kannada, 253 Form 11A applications have been rejected, while 55 applications have been rejected in Udupi district, including 35 in Karkala.
Similarly, out of 15,936 applications submitted for Form 11B, only 5,151 have been approved, while 8,892 applications are still pending. Of these, 65 applications are pending in Dakshina Kannada and 436 in Udupi.
Kishore Kumar said that the additional approval procedures introduced under e-Swathu 2.0 have made the process more complicated. Earlier, the approval of the Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) at the gram panchayat level was sufficient for Form 11A. However, the system now requires approval from the Executive Officer (EO) at the taluk level.
Likewise, approval for Form 11B, which was earlier handled at the gram panchayat level, has now been moved to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zilla Panchayat. This, he said, has resulted in unnecessary delays and hardship for ordinary citizens.
He demanded that the additional EO and CEO approval stages be removed and that the earlier system of processing applications at the grama panchayat level be restored.
He also pointed out that citizens currently have no proper tracking facility to know which officer’s login their application is pending with. If an application submitted through the citizen login is rejected, the applicant is also not provided with adequate information about the reason for rejection.
Although e-Swathu 2.0 was introduced as a paperless system, applicants are still being asked to submit physical documents to taluk and zilla panchayat offices, he alleged.
Kishore Kumar further highlighted several technical issues, including slow servers, frequent system outages, difficulties in uploading scanned documents, improper display of old property records, lack of coordination with other government software such as Kaveri, errors in Kannada Unicode typing and the absence of adequate technical support.
He also said that the automatic transfer and deemed approval mechanism prescribed under the Karnataka Grama Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Grama Panchayat Taxes, Rates and Fees) Rules, 2025, has not yet been effectively activated in the e-Swathu 2.0 system.
“The purpose of e-Swathu 2.0 is to bring transparency, speed and simplicity to administration. However, if a digital system intended to make services easier instead forces people to visit offices repeatedly, its basic purpose is defeated,” he said.
Kishore Kumar urged the government to immediately resolve the technical and administrative issues in e-Swathu 2.0, conduct a special drive to clear pending Form 11A and 11B applications, and eliminate unnecessary approval stages.
He stressed that maximum services related to property records should be provided at the gram panchayat level itself to ensure people-friendly and efficient governance.