Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Saturday unveiled three mobile applications and web links dedicated to lakes, parks, and the Hasiru Rakshaka initiative. The Park and Lake Mitra apps aim to provide current information about lakes and parks in the city. Additionally, these apps offer a feature for users to submit complaints and grievances related to parks and lakes.
The Lakes Monitoring Application, created by the civic body, allows the public to participate in the enhancement of lakes actively. Users can access details about ongoing efforts to clean the lake, improve the walking paths, and other important information pertaining to a particular lake. According to a release from BBMP, officials have access to review day-to-day progress reports, monitor attendance of lake security personnel, and track comprehensive work details of the lake through this application.
The initiative ‘Kere Mithra’ allows volunteers to select their interested lake, regularly monitor the development works, and update it on the BBMP website. This will help maintain the lakes effectively, according to BBMP. From the entire pool of registered volunteers, a monthly selection process will randomly choose 10 volunteers for each lake through an online randomisation process. Once chosen for the respective month, the Kere Mithra will be notified via email and cellphone, receiving login credentials. Subsequently, they can utilise the web application for their designated purpose.
Kere Mithra’s has the responsibility of overseeing various activities within lakes, including sweeping pathways, cleaning bund slopes, de-weeding waterbodies, clearing inlets, cleaning wetlands, attending to jungle clearance, monitoring Home Guards’ attendance, noting lake timings, and tracking officials’ visits, among other tasks.
The BBMP said that it has decided to entrust the management of city parks to local residents under the Udyana Mitra initiative. With 1200 parks in the city, residents are encouraged to actively participate in their maintenance. Through a registration process on the application, they can oversee daily tasks such as sweeping, pruning hedges, shrubs, and plants, watering, lawn mowing, borewell maintenance, gate operations in accordance with rules, garbage removal, and all electrical works related to the parks.
According Mr. Shivakumar, the Hasiru Rakshaka app and website aims to involve school children in planting trees to enhance the green cover of the city. In the fiscal year 2023-24, a total of 1 lakh saplings were planted by 52,015 students in collaboration with 224 schools and colleges. Those students who successfully nurture a plant for three years will be honored with “Hasiru Rakshaka-Green Guardian” certificates, Mr. Shivakumar added.
According to a release from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Hasiru Rakshaka app will assign a unique tag number to students actively nurturing a sapling. This tag enables students to log in to the app and provide updates on the progress of the saplings and trees under their care. The app offers additional information on the specific sapling, including nurturing guidelines and more. Successfully nurturing the sapling qualifies the student for a certificate.
