There are over 30,000 complaints still waiting to be redressed on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) Sahaaya app. This, when the civic body has already moved on to addressing complaints registered on Sahaaya 2.0 (Namma Bengaluru) app that was launched recently.
Senior BBMP officials told The Hindu that since the new Sahaaya was launched by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, the civic body has been promoting it. More attention is being given to the complaints registered on Sahaaya 2.0.
Since its launch earlier in February, around 4,600 complaints pertaining to BBMP have been registered. Of these, officials have already redressed over 1,700 complaints. The official said that all the officers have been mapped and complaints once registered on the new app can get escalated to higher officials if not redressed within a particular time frame. Complaints that have come to the BBMP through the control rooms or even WhatsApp are linked on the new app, the official told The Hindu.
So what about the 30,000-odd complaints? The official said the BBMP will be addressing those separately. These complaints will remain on the old app. “Once all the complaints are addressed, we will shut down the old app,” the official stated.
Odette Katrak, a resident of Bellandur, has three open complaints on the old Sahaaya app. She said unless all the complaints are migrated to the new app, redressal is uncertain. In the old app, there have been several instances of complaints getting closed suddenly. There would be a flurry of calls from the call centre in the head office sometimes. “However, I have had some complaints being addressed by officials quite efficiently. The old and new apps should be linked at least for some time before the old app is shut down,” she said.
If the BBMP is keen on promoting Sahaaya 2.0, Ms. Katrak said it needed to be publicised. Residents, she said, should be encouraged to make use of the complaint mechanism. “This is a good instrument to engage with the BBMP. With more residents using the app, the instances of littering and burning of leaves will come down,” she added.