‘Call Bittu Tabahi to inaugurate’: Bengaluru founders plan to fix leaking sewage drain

Bengaluru's Virendra Suryawanshi and Amit Gupta discussed a plan to fix clogged drains in Indiranagar.

There is a growing trend of citizen-led civic action India, where residents are taking neglected public problems into their own hands rather than waiting for municipal authorities to fix them. Although this is not new, two recent events have brought attention to this civic action trend. First, Bittu Tabahi, a 21-year-old student from Madhya Pradesh, cleaned up a polluted river in his hometown and drew accolades from millions. Then, Bengaluru-based CEO Siddharth Dialani personally funded to fix a broken footpath near a Koramangala society.

Virendra Suryawanshi shared a picture of leaking sewage in Indiranagar (X/@Virendra0698)

Since then, several citizens have taken to social media to highlight the steps they are taking to fix broken infrastructure.

Bengaluru founder lodges complaint

In one such case, Virendra Suryawanshi, an entrepreneur based in Bengaluru, raised a complaint with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board to flag clogged drains in Indiranagar.

He posted about the issue on social media, where his post caught the attention of Konfirmity founder Amit Gupta. Gupta suggested that they start a fundraising campaign to fix local issues and call Bittu Tabahi, along with Nithin Kamath and Caleb Friesen to inaugurate the project.

“For the last few months, I've walked past 5 clogged drains on 12th main indiranagar and done nothing about it. They're mosquito breeding grounds and they stink,” Suryawanshi posted on X earlier this week.

“I’ll work with Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board to fix that in the next couple of week,” he added.

Over the last couple of days, Suryawanshi posted updates on his complaint. He was told that the issue would take three to four months to fix. Suryawanshi, the founder of Anomaly Labs, tagged Greater Bengaluru Authority and asked if the fix could be expedited.

In his most recent post yesterday, Suryawanshi again flagged the issue of clogged drains leaking sewage on the road and said the unseemly sight is in front of Araku Coffee on 12th Main, Indiranagar.

Bengaluru founders discuss solution

The post caught the attention of Amit Gupta, founder of Konformity, who suggested that public action might be the way forward.

“I suppose we should start a gofundme and fix this in localized way. 1000s of GoFundMe. Small, localized and effective. Publish accounts transparently,” Gupta suggested.

While Virendra Suryawanshi was open to the idea, he said it should be the last resort. “Yes, I've been thinking the same. this would be the last option though,” Suryawanshi replied.

Gupta then suggested that Bittu Tabahi, Nithin Kamath and Caleb Friesen could be called to inaugurate the citizen movement.

“Instead of running these options sequentially, let's run them parallel? Call Bittu Tabahi , @nithin0dha. And @caleb_friesen to inaugurate,” he wrote on X.

Caleb is a Canadian vlogger who had earlier drawn attention to Bengaluru’s pedestrian woes by sharing a video of navigating broken, encroached footpaths in Indiranagar.

Bittu Tabahi’s rise to fame

Surendra Singh Choudhary, aka Bittu Tabahi, first shot to fame for cleaning a trash-filled river in his hometown of Biaora in Madhya Pradesh.

After that, Choudhary took on the task of cleaning some of the most littered areas of Delhi NCR. On September 22, he shared a video that shows him and his team of volunteers cleaning up the garbage littering the Yamuna riverbank.

He and his team removed around 585 kg of waste from the Yamuna riverbank in 4.5 hours.