Citizen warriors: How Bengaluru’s RWAs are taking on civic duties

Last Wednesday, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who is also the MLA from Byatarayanapura assembly constituency, posted a video of an unmotorable service road on the Outer Ring Road, requesting immediate repairs by the BBMP. The video went viral, highlighting not only the minister’s apparent helplessness despite his powerful portfolio but also the daily struggles of citizens to prompt action from the civic body.

Next month, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will mark four years without an elected body. In the absence of councillors, who played a crucial role in addressing civic issues such as potholes, dysfunctional streetlights, unpruned branches, and uncollected garbage, the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have taken on these responsibilities. However, their effectiveness is limited without the support and cooperation of the civic agency.

VK Srivatsa, who is a part of I Change Hemmigepura, said the BBMP officers have been responding to his complaints as they have a good rapport with them. “Many RWAs are doing the job of councillors as it is difficult for the ordinary citizen to get a face-to-face meeting with the BBMP or BDA engineers. This is not our work but I consider it as a service,” he said. 

Resident groups like Citizens’ Movement East Bengaluru have been running online campaigns to demand that BBMP elections be held at the earliest.

Wary of active RWAs 

It is a fact that BBMP engineers are wary of active RWAs because they fear being reprimanded by their superiors or exposed on social media for neglecting their duties.

“Areas with active RWAs are able to raise issues with the BBMP officers and MLAs. But there are areas which do not have citizen groups. Officials generally respond to people who are influential or represent the RWA”, says Sneha Nandihal from iChange Indiranagar.

Sandeep Anirudhan, Convener of Namma Whitefield, has been actively engaged in addressing civic issues by forming a shadow ward committee. At the hyperlocal level, he says, some associations are able to manage since they are ensuring that ward committee meetings are held. “We have created WhatsApp groups where the engineers are present. We do the job of raising complaints and putting pressure on the authorities to act,” he said. 

However, when it comes to grievance redressal that requires an allocation of funds, the associations confess they feel helpless. Mithilesh Kumar, from Citizens’ Movement East Bengaluru, says that in the last three years, whenever an issue was raised, they hardly got any response. “We suspect a large portion of funds are provided for areas situated in the central parts of Bengaluru. The peripheral areas are in a pathetic state but there is no tangible work happening”, he adds.

Anirudhan added that the BBMP is spending its resources on unnecessary works even though there are important projects that need urgent attention. “The regular maintenance of roads and infrastructure, which can solve most of the problems, is not happening as it should. There is no accountability and supervision. The works are not known to the public,” he said. 

Kumar said some MLAs are making excuses for not addressing civic grievances, stating the party they represent is not in power in the state. “This is why the BBMP elections must be held immediately.”

“We can’t always approach either the MLAs or the officials. Corporators are easily accessible but the government is delaying the polls,” Srivatsa says.  

Nandihal believes that the elections to the BBMP are being postponed as MLAs want to take control of the ward. “Now the MLAs are directly involved with the wards and are able to make more money than they used to, so they don’t want to let go of that,” she said. 

Heaps of uncleared garbage particularly prevalent on weekends dot the cityscape. Numerous citizen groups have urged the BBMP to consistently remove trash to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. 

Poor digital platforms 

Even though the BBMP has launched mobile applications such as ‘Sahaaya’ and ‘Raste Gundi Gamana (Fix Pothole)’ to attend to citizens’ grievances, they have not been of much help. “Except for street light complaints, nothing gets resolved,” says Srivatsa.

The BBMP’s redressal system is so bad that many citizen groups have turned to a social media handle (officer on special duty) operated by the Chief Minister’s office (CMO) for help and the response is almost immediate. Whenever citizen groups reach out to the CMO through X (formerly Twitter), their complaints are taken seriously

Some citizen groups including Citizens’ Movement East Bengaluru have been running campaigns, demanding that the BBMP elections be conducted. “We have sent letters to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), but there has not been any response. We plan to do the campaign for 100 days and raise the issue and see what happens,” says Kumar.