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Whitefield residents form shadow panel for civic issues
The Whitefield Citizens Ward Committee provides residents with a platform to report violations like building plan deviations, encroachments of footpaths, and illegal laying of Optical Fibre Cable
The citizens residing in Bengaluru’s Whitefield area have formed a ‘shadow ward committee’ to oversee and ensure the functioning of the official Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ward committees.
They have also launched their website and a social media channel to crowdsource violations from citizens in the area.
The Whitefield Citizens Ward Committee (WCWC) provides residents with a platform to report violations like building plan deviations, encroachments of footpaths, and illegal laying of Optical Fibre Cable (OFC), among others, people familiar with the developments said.
Sandeep Anirudhan, a civic activist and convenor of the ‘Namma Whitefield,’ a citizen’s group, said the WCWC has over 200 members and will be officially launched in a couple of days after crowdsourcing sufficient data.
An interactive map will also be created to spot violations, Anirudhan added.
“During elections, we didn’t have any ward committee meetings, although it is mandated. Even after the elections ended, nothing was happening,” he said.
Explaining the inception of the WCWC, Anirudhan said that earlier in July, the residents of Mahadevapura zone had presented various issues and possible solutions at a special meeting convened by the newly-appointed BBMP joint commissioner (JC) Dakshayini K.
The BBMP JC issued various orders, including that on display boards at under-construction buildings, after the WCWC raised the issue.
“We had raised the issue that under the BBMP bylaws, any under-construction building has to put up building plan approval outside the wall of the compound. Only then they can get the commencement certificate from the town building officer and start construction. The JC immediately issued an order in this regard earlier in July.”
“Then she issued an order on clearing encroachments, footpaths, etc. But we realised that the lower-level officials were bypassing the regulations. The implementation was missing at the ground level,” Anirudhan added.
That is how the WCWC was formed, Anirudhan said, pointing out that the aim is to strengthen the official ward committees. “We are trying to ensure that the ward committees are functioning properly. It’s not a parallel system. We try to keep it alive and push officials.”
The WCWC will crowdsource the violations, put the information on a public platform and then submit it to the JC for action.
“We also decided to put up an interactive map. Then we created a Twitter handle and website for it. We call it the citizens’ ward committee and the only one of its kind which is so active in Bengaluru,” Anirudhan said.
The committee is currently fine-tuning the portals and collating all violations currently. Apart from the main ward committee group, the WCWC also has two sub-committees overseeing lakes, violations, and social media.
“The officials take official minutes in the ward committee meetings. We put it up on our portals and ensure all those issues are taken care of. It’s like a support group for the official institution. We are creating a follow-up mechanism,” he explained.
