Representative image showing a woman using a phone.
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Sneha Ramesh: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had launched 58 online portals and mobile applications till February for various office functions and to help citizens access services, according to data exclusively accessed by DH.
However, leave alone citizens, even the BBMP Information Technology (IT) Cell is not aware of the working status of these applications. Many departments have outsourced the application management to third-party companies without consulting the IT Cell.
The cell is now conducting a survey and taking stock of all the applications. Many departments within BBMP have outsourced and got applications built, but have got little response as people are not aware of them. “The applications were not routed through the IT cell and hence we are unaware of the status of many applications. We are now trying to collect information from every department,” a senior official from the BBMP’s IT cell told DH.
Of the 58 applications, sources said that at least 10-15 of them are not working.
While a few of these applications are used for office management and to track a few functions of BBMP, a few others were announced to provide citizen-centric services. However, except for Sahaaya 2.0, the application that allows citizens file complaints, none of the others have made a mark among the people. “The officials are quick to announce and launch applications that aim to provide services. One to address potholes, one for waste collection, we have heard so many over the years. However, except for Sahaaya, we did not feel anything else was helpful. There is hardly any response on other applications. In fact, Sahaaya also does not completely resolve the issue,” said Abhay Kumar, a resident of Mahadevapura.
The data showed that with over 10 applications, the Solid Waste Management (SWM) wing of the BBMP had the highest applications commissioned and the status of many was unknown. While citizens said none of the applications helped better the waste management system in the city which was still plagued with number of problems, a senior official from the SWM department said that many of them were mostly being used for office purposes.
“Many of them were commissioned years ago. Though we are not sure if all the applications are being used, we are using many of them for office purposes such as tracking the tippers and RFID recognition,” a senior official from the SWM department said.
The official from the IT cell added that the system will soon be streamlined to ensure all the applications are either developed in-house or are approved by the IT cell before being commissioned by the individual departments.