BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Smart City Limited, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is working on an app that allows citizens to participate in the BBMP budget. This is under the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC). The ICCC was earlier announced as an integrated grievance redressal centre, that looks into all kinds of complaints from citizens. The mobile app proposal, which is at a nascent stage, will address pressing issues on priority basis, in terms of fund allocation at the ward-level.
Explaining how it will work, a BenSCL official said,” For a particular ward, 70 per cent of the complaints could be about roads, 20 for solid waste management and so on. A fund set aside for each ward will be fed into the app. Based on the data gathered from citizens, the funds will be distributed through an algorithm, giving more money to issues that have gathered most complaints.”He said that even with roads, the app will further classify each street.
“If a particular street has more complaints of potholes as compared to others, it will receive more funds under the roads category. This is so that citizens have a say in the budget allocation. Even the corporators and MLAs will have a login, to complain about these issues. When issues are discussed in the council, elected representatives will have data to back them up when they ask for funds,” the official said, further adding,” Funds won't be allocated as per the whims and fancies of a select few. The system is to see how efficiently resources can be used for the benefit of tax-paying citizens.”
A brief presentation has been made to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Special Commissioner (projects), Ravikumar Surpur and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), which is the nodal agency for smart city project in Karnataka. A more detailed proposal is being worked on and BBMP, KUIDFC will have to approve it, for it to be implemented.
For those without the app, the ICCC would be aggregating complaints received through Facebook, Twitter, hand-written letters, calls to control room, and the likes.