Civic monitoring app required

City Development minister KJ George launched the ‘Fix My Street’ app for citizens to report on civic problems involving the BBMP.

However, there are already two popular apps that do exactly the same thing: BBMP Sahaya and IChangeMyCity. And yet, we have not seen real issues getting solved, first-hand. And this is particularly when we raise a pothole complaint.

We get an SMS that the case is assigned, and then, escalated and then closed, but the pothole remains. How will the Fix My Street app really help if these have already failed? Will the minister’s inner circle monitor the app, issue instructions and monies to fix civic issues on priority basis?

Therefore, Residents Watch replied to George’s tweet that he should instead launch an app that shows the money granted for civic works in real-time. When a certain road is granted money on paper and this is reflected in the app, citizens can flag it to alert the concerned authorities or even go to the court that it was not done. This will cut down corruption significantly.

But is transparency going to be ushered by the powers-that-be or is it just confined to political opportunism and stunts during the election year?