BBMP's glitch-hit 'Sahaaya' app set for reboot in Jan

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) will be relaunching its glitch-ridden ‘Sahaaya App’ in January 2020.

Launched in 2016 as a one-stop platform to register civic complaints, citizens failed to warm up to the app owing to numerous technical glitches.

Under fire over its shoddy app, the BBMP has now carried out a cosmetic change to the app and a new version—Sahaaya Version 2.0—will be launched on January 1 with new features.

Introducing the new version of the app on Wednesday, BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said that the new version will be of great help to the public as it ensures greater transparency.

Anil Kumar admitted the present Sahaaya app’s faults, saying currently there is no mechanism for realtime tracking of complaints.

“Besides, the complaints can also be closed without even addressing them on the ground. As a result, the complainant (citizen) will be in the dark about the status of the complaint. At times, many citizens have expressed shock over the closure of complaints without even addressing them. All these glitches have been resolved in the new version,” Kumar said at the conclave of Urban Thought Leaders organised by the Urban Development Department.

The new system, equipped with back-office web application and real-time dashboard facility, enables citizens to track their complaints on a day-to-day basis.

“Under the new system, complaints automatically get assigned to officials concerned,” the commissioner explained. “In case of errors, they can be manually over-written and if officials exceed the deadline, matter will be escalated to the higher-ups. Closure of the complaints is possible only when officials enter photos or videos of the work done by geotagging of the location.”

Simultaneously, the new mechanism keeps updating the public about the progress of their complaint by way of SMS and geotagging of the work done besides sending out reminders to its personnel.

Under the new system, according to the commissioner, there will not be any scope for officials to drag their feet.

BBMP recently faced flak when it was discovered that only six out of about 12,000 complaints received in a month had been resolved.