City Pulse

One citizen’s effort brought respite to an entire neighbourhood. Garbage was always an issue for residents of 16^th cross, Ist Main Road in A Narayanapura ward. The road had turned into a dumpyard and in spite of repeated clean-ups, garbage always found its way back.

Sabyasachi Mandal, a software engineer who lives on this stretch decided to take it upon himself to get this issue resolved.

In November 2019, Sabyasachi highlighted the garbage issue on I Change My City. BBMP immediately got the area cleaned the very same week. An elated Sabyasachi marked the complaint as resolved, only to find garbage dumped at the same spot, the very next day.

“Though garbage was cleaned, changing people’s mentality was a challenge. For them this spot had become a dump yard and they did not think twice before littering the spot which was cleaned. The brunt of a few people's apathetic attitude had to be faced by the entire neighbourhood. Pedestrians struggled to walk on this stinky stretch and for residents it was a daily nightmare. I wanted a permanent resolution and hence decided to use I Change My City platform to spark this change,” he tells Team I Change My City.

Sabyasachi posted two complaints on I Change My City in the last week of December 2019, regarding two garbage spots on the same stretch that made life difficult for the residents. I Change My City forwarded the complaint to the BBMP and Sabyasachi received a call from BBMP's Junior Health Inspector.

“I explained to the Junior Health Inspector the problem on the recurring garbage issue as well as the problems faced by residents. He assured to look into the issue,” says Sabyasachi.

The very next day, BBMP got to work. The garbage was picked-up and the spot was sanitized to ensure there are no traces of garbage left. BBMP workers placed flower pots and drew a colourful Rangoli at the spot which was treated like a dump yard.

“This was a creative move. When people visited the spot with garbage, they were deterred to litter the area which now looked green and colourful. I have been observing this spot for 15 days. The Rangoli faded off and the flower pots were shifted to the edge of the road to make way for traffic. However, no one has dumped garbage since then,” says Sabyasachi.

Marking both complaints as resolved on I Change My City and appreciating BBMP for the swift action, Sabyasachi says he is pleasantly surprised to notice the turnaround and how a little effort can bring about a permanent positive change.

Like Sabyasachi, why not bring change in your neighbourhood? All you have to do is post a complaint on I Change My City.