MAKE ACCOUNTABILITY A TWO-WAY STREET!
The Issue
A citizen movement for transparent, responsive and accountable governance
To:
D. K. Shivakumar, Chief Minister of Karnataka
Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister for Bengaluru Development
Maheshwar Rao M, IAS, Chief Commissioner
Tushar Giri Nath, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Karnataka
From: Concerned Citizens of India!
We accept our responsibility as citizens.
Jump a signal, an e-challan reaches you automatically, often within minutes, generated without any human intervention.
Park illegally, you are fined.
Pay your property tax even a day after the due date — BBMP charges 9% annual penal interest, doubling to a full 100% penalty on the tax owed if it stays unpaid for two years.
Fail to comply with a civic rule — you are penalised. We accept this.
Enforcement of citizen duty in Bengaluru is now instant, automated and unforgiving.
But accountability cannot run in only one direction.
A pothole kills someone.
A live wire stays exposed. A drain stays open.
A building rises in violation of zoning norms and stays that way for years.
No name. No deadline. No record. No consequence — until tragedy forces it.
Bengaluru has topped India's civic-negligence death toll for 4 straight years — 20 dead in 2023 alone. (NCRB)
₹500 = ₹500. Jump a signal once, pay ₹500.
Under Karnataka's own Sakala Act, an officer's entire penalty for delaying your complaint, however long it drags on — is capped at ₹500 too. A one-time citizen violation and unlimited government delay, priced identically.
The law already backs us
Bombay High Court, Oct 2025: safe roads are a fundamental right under Article 21. Ordered 48-hour pothole fixes, ₹6L compensation for deaths, personal liability for officials.MCD v. Subhagwanti (1966): Supreme Court held municipal bodies automatically liable for negligent public assets — the same logic covers potholes, wires, drains and trees today.
Sakala Act, 2011: already guarantees time-bound service and officer-level penalties for 478 services. We're asking for the same principle, extended to civic hazards — with a penalty that actually scales.
OUR DEMAND
One Public Accountability & Service Dashboard — built on data BBMP/GBA already collects via Sahaaya/ICCC, made public, with the deadlines and escalation it currently lacks. Not a new system. An accountable one.
For every complaint, it should show:
WHO is responsible?
WHAT has been reported, and WHEN?
WHAT is the deadline to act?
WHAT action was taken?
WAS it actually resolved?
IF NOT, who is it escalated to, and why?
Every civic complaint — pothole, drain, footpath, tree, streetlight, electrical hazard, garbage, roadwork or other public infrastructure — should have a digital, time-stamped trail from complaint to resolution. And every sanctioned government project should have its status visible on the same dashboard, so citizens can see not just how complaints are handled, but where their tax money is actually going.
The ten asks:
- One complaint, one tracking number — routed automatically to the right department.
- A named, responsible officer for every public asset and service.
- Time-bound action: 24 hrs (life-threatening) · 48–72 hrs (potholes) · 5–7 days (other hazards).
- Automatic escalation on missed deadlines — no citizen follow-up needed.
- A public dashboard: department performance, overdue cases, response and resolution rates.
- Time-bound, named-officer investigation for every negligence-linked death or injury.
- Public recognition for officers who deliver — accountability should reward good work too.
- Honest disclosure when budget, staffing or procurement — not will — is the real blocker.
- Public status tracking for sanctioned projects — budget, stage, completion date, agency. Where does our tax money go?
- A live officer directory — name, role/responsibility, ward, tenure — updated the day a transfer order is issued, plus a public performance score normalised for resource gaps. Accountability at every level, not just the top.
This isn't about blaming officials.
Most work under real constraints. This is about a system that protects good officers and makes negligence impossible to hide.
The principle
Citizens are held accountable automatically. Government must be too — on the same terms. We are not asking for punishment without due process. We are asking for:
A NAME. A RESPONSIBILITY. A DEADLINE. A RECORD. A RESPONSE. AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
Join the movement
SIGN THIS PETITION → JOIN THE ACCOUNTABILITY COLLECTIVE→ https://chat.whatsapp.com/LMSOelwhiTrJwJ6UHOATM3
Share it with your family, your apartment association (RWA), your neighborhood group, your colleagues, and every citizen who believes good governance must run both ways. c.org/G8BsDcdgZ6
This isn't about one government or one city. It's about how citizens and government hold each other accountable — everywhere in India.
MAKE ACCOUNTABILITY A TWO-WAY STREET.
Because no citizen should have to die before the system decides who was responsible.
Legal & data references
https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2025/10/15/right-to-safe-roads-fundamental-right-bombay-hc-orders-compensation-pothole-deaths/
https://lawbhoomi.com/municipal-corporation-of-delhi-vs-subhagwanti/
https://sakala.kar.nic.in/aboutact.aspx
https://pfms.nic.in/SitePages/aboutus.aspx
THE ACCOUNTABILITY COLLECTIVE!
623
The Issue
A citizen movement for transparent, responsive and accountable governance
To:
D. K. Shivakumar, Chief Minister of Karnataka
Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister for Bengaluru Development
Maheshwar Rao M, IAS, Chief Commissioner
Tushar Giri Nath, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Karnataka
From: Concerned Citizens of India!
We accept our responsibility as citizens.
Jump a signal, an e-challan reaches you automatically, often within minutes, generated without any human intervention.
Park illegally, you are fined.
Pay your property tax even a day after the due date — BBMP charges 9% annual penal interest, doubling to a full 100% penalty on the tax owed if it stays unpaid for two years.
Fail to comply with a civic rule — you are penalised. We accept this.
Enforcement of citizen duty in Bengaluru is now instant, automated and unforgiving.
But accountability cannot run in only one direction.
A pothole kills someone.
A live wire stays exposed. A drain stays open.
A building rises in violation of zoning norms and stays that way for years.
No name. No deadline. No record. No consequence — until tragedy forces it.
Bengaluru has topped India's civic-negligence death toll for 4 straight years — 20 dead in 2023 alone. (NCRB)
₹500 = ₹500. Jump a signal once, pay ₹500.
Under Karnataka's own Sakala Act, an officer's entire penalty for delaying your complaint, however long it drags on — is capped at ₹500 too. A one-time citizen violation and unlimited government delay, priced identically.
The law already backs us
Bombay High Court, Oct 2025: safe roads are a fundamental right under Article 21. Ordered 48-hour pothole fixes, ₹6L compensation for deaths, personal liability for officials.MCD v. Subhagwanti (1966): Supreme Court held municipal bodies automatically liable for negligent public assets — the same logic covers potholes, wires, drains and trees today.
Sakala Act, 2011: already guarantees time-bound service and officer-level penalties for 478 services. We're asking for the same principle, extended to civic hazards — with a penalty that actually scales.
OUR DEMAND
One Public Accountability & Service Dashboard — built on data BBMP/GBA already collects via Sahaaya/ICCC, made public, with the deadlines and escalation it currently lacks. Not a new system. An accountable one.
For every complaint, it should show:
WHO is responsible?
WHAT has been reported, and WHEN?
WHAT is the deadline to act?
WHAT action was taken?
WAS it actually resolved?
IF NOT, who is it escalated to, and why?
Every civic complaint — pothole, drain, footpath, tree, streetlight, electrical hazard, garbage, roadwork or other public infrastructure — should have a digital, time-stamped trail from complaint to resolution. And every sanctioned government project should have its status visible on the same dashboard, so citizens can see not just how complaints are handled, but where their tax money is actually going.
The ten asks:
- One complaint, one tracking number — routed automatically to the right department.
- A named, responsible officer for every public asset and service.
- Time-bound action: 24 hrs (life-threatening) · 48–72 hrs (potholes) · 5–7 days (other hazards).
- Automatic escalation on missed deadlines — no citizen follow-up needed.
- A public dashboard: department performance, overdue cases, response and resolution rates.
- Time-bound, named-officer investigation for every negligence-linked death or injury.
- Public recognition for officers who deliver — accountability should reward good work too.
- Honest disclosure when budget, staffing or procurement — not will — is the real blocker.
- Public status tracking for sanctioned projects — budget, stage, completion date, agency. Where does our tax money go?
- A live officer directory — name, role/responsibility, ward, tenure — updated the day a transfer order is issued, plus a public performance score normalised for resource gaps. Accountability at every level, not just the top.
This isn't about blaming officials.
Most work under real constraints. This is about a system that protects good officers and makes negligence impossible to hide.
The principle
Citizens are held accountable automatically. Government must be too — on the same terms. We are not asking for punishment without due process. We are asking for:
A NAME. A RESPONSIBILITY. A DEADLINE. A RECORD. A RESPONSE. AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
Join the movement
SIGN THIS PETITION → JOIN THE ACCOUNTABILITY COLLECTIVE→ https://chat.whatsapp.com/LMSOelwhiTrJwJ6UHOATM3
Share it with your family, your apartment association (RWA), your neighborhood group, your colleagues, and every citizen who believes good governance must run both ways. c.org/G8BsDcdgZ6
This isn't about one government or one city. It's about how citizens and government hold each other accountable — everywhere in India.
MAKE ACCOUNTABILITY A TWO-WAY STREET.
Because no citizen should have to die before the system decides who was responsible.
Legal & data references
https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2025/10/15/right-to-safe-roads-fundamental-right-bombay-hc-orders-compensation-pothole-deaths/
https://lawbhoomi.com/municipal-corporation-of-delhi-vs-subhagwanti/
https://sakala.kar.nic.in/aboutact.aspx
https://pfms.nic.in/SitePages/aboutus.aspx
THE ACCOUNTABILITY COLLECTIVE!
The Decision Makers
Petition Updates
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Petition created on 20 August 2026