The BBMP is considering forming a dedicated squad to monitor the city's civic services, including garbage spots, footpaths, potholes, and streetlights.
The squad, the idea for which came up due to the absence of a parallel system to supervise engineers, will report the issues to the departments concerned.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar suggested the formation of these squads after learning that the engineers were not regularly visiting or supervising projects.
Similar to the police, the BBMP squad will patrol the city, particularly at night, to inspect civic amenities. The team, consisting of marshals and other workers, will have a dedicated vehicle for this purpose.
Apart from addressing immediate concerns, the squad may also serve as a separate vertical to oversee various projects. While the BBMP invests heavily in the maintenance of roads, streetlights, parks, and planting saplings, lack of parallel supervision and thorough auditing by engineers continue to hurt its initiatives.
Regarding citizen grievances, resident Murali Govindarajulu suggested focusing on strengthening the Sahaaya portal, which he called an effective tool to address citizen grievances.
“At the moment, citizens are reporting grievances, but the engineers are not responding immediately. The system needs to be supervised,” he said.
As an active member of the ward, Govindarajulu wants the BBMP to deploy an enforcement squad to address issues like encroachments and unauthorised constructions, which occur frequently. “The BBMP has no dedicated team to act on these violations,” he said.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath said the civic body reviews the functioning of the Sahaaya portal on a weekly basis. “The dedicated squad is no substitute for Sahaaya app,” he clarified, adding that it would strengthen the existing system.
“We will deploy engineers on a rotation basis to ensure the key issues are addressed quickly,” Girinath assured.
Published 10 July 2023, 19:16 IST