The Budget Bus and seven electric auto-rickshaws to visit 198 wards of Bengaluru up till January 7, collating citizen inputs on improving footpaths and public toilets

The Budget Bus, an integral vehicle of the #MyCityMyBudget campaign, was flagged off by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner  N Manjunath Prasad in the presence of citizens and RWAs  recently. Mr. Randeep D,, Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) was also present.

“Around 50 lakh people use BMTC buses. However, a survey reveals that people use 50 per cent of the trips to travel 1 to 2 kilometres. If citizens have access to citizen-friendly footpaths, they would prefer to walk than depend on transport,” said BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad.

“Bengaluru has roads and streets that stretch up to 14,000 kilometres. However, many of these roads lack footpaths. Even if existing, many are not pedestrian-friendly. They are narrow, have missing slabs, dumped with garbage/debris and not walkable. Bengaluru weather is favourable for people to walk, but people feel discouraged due to lack of infrastructure. Secondly, Bengaluru has 585 public toilets, but according to our population, we need at least 1600. There is a severe lack of public toilets. Even some of the existing ones are not maintained, which discourages people from using them. BBMP has a budget to construct public toilets. However, we need the help of citizens in highlighting the areas where they feel a public toilet needs to be constructed or maintained better. The #yellowspotsbeda campaign as a part of MyCityMyBudget with Janaagraha is an effective way of crowdsourcing citizen inputs,” Manjunath Prasad said.

“The #MyCityMyBudget, a collaborative effort of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Janaagraha was launched on December 8 in the BBMP war room. Over 25 organisations have partnered with us this year, and we are hoping more will join us in the days to come. This year a special focus is given to putting an end to public urination, constructing/improving public toilets and making footpaths pedestrian-friendly. As citizens, we can help BBMP identify the problem areas of our neighbourhood. Once identified, we can ensure they get into the plan of action. While the budget bus collates citizen inputs via offline mode, citizens can also share inputs online visiting www.yellowspots.in” said Sapna Karim, Head, Civic Participation Head at Janaagraha.

“The #MyCityMyBudget is an important campaign that will help BBMP understand the need analysis regarding toilets and footpaths. BBMP has funds. However, we need citizen participation to help us pinpoint on effective utilisation of funds,” said Randeep D BBMP Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management).

“Public urination is a blot on our city. It reflects badly on our brand image as a beautiful, global city that has grown tremendously.  It is a fact that we haven’t built enough public toilets.  Most of our public toilets indeed need better maintenance. But the biggest obstacle is a mindset – if we want to end urination, all of us must take it as a personal mission.  Janaagraha is thrilled to be partnering with BBMP and happy to see an overwhelming response from many citizen groups and RWAs. This budget bus will help us reach lakhs of citizens and get their valuable feedback,” said Srinivas Alavilli, Head, Civic Participation Head at Janaagraha.