By Rajiv Shah
I was recently forwarded a complaint by social activist Jatin Sheth, who leads Abad Amdavad, an Ahmedabad-based civic rights NGO. The organization regularly takes up municipal grievances in a city that aspires to be a cutting-edge metropolis—one eyeing to hold the Commonwealth Games, followed by the Olympics. It is quite another matter that independent international studies have ranked Ahmedabad among the environmentally least resilient when evaluated alongside 72 global cities.
A few weeks ago, Abad Amdavad submitted a formal representation to civic authorities, arguing that the city’s current infrastructure and administrative apparatus fall far short of what is required to host an event like the 2030 Commonwealth Games, let alone the Olympic Games six years later. Given current ground realities, “the city’s civic condition may embarrass the nation unless urgent, structural reforms are pushed,” Sheth wrote in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A follow-up memorandum—the second in under a fortnight, addressed to the Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner—pushes the critique further. It suggests that the city’s administration lacks basic transparency by failing to entertain public feedback, let alone resolve urgent complaints. Ironically, this unfolds while the civic body markets Ahmedabad as India's premier "Smart City," heavily backed by central government initiatives. To substantiate his claims, Sheth points directly to two mobile applications endorsed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
Both apps—AMC Seva and CCRS Citizen (CCRS standing for Comprehensive Complaint Redressal System)—are designed to allow citizens to lodge civic grievances securely from their phones. Yet, according to Sheth’s petition, both platforms are plagued by persistent glitches and operational failures, causing significant frustration for residents seeking basic redressal.
Checking the Google Play Store to verify these claims, I noticed that the listed developer for AMC Seva was not the AMC, but a private entity: Civic Solutions Pvt. Ltd. When I asked Sheth why he targeted an app seemingly owned by an independent developer, he suggested off-handedly that it was likely an outsourced contract.
A closer inquiry confirmed he was right. Developed in 2017, AMC Seva operates with official AMC authorization under a vendor contract with Civic Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an e-governance service provider. Because the vendor maintains the technical infrastructure under an AMC mandate, the application is published under their corporate profile.
Furthermore, the app integrates directly with the AMC's backend grievance database and conforms to Open311 standards, funneling municipal issues—such as pothole repairs, defunct streetlights, sewage blockages, and solid waste collection—directly to zonal municipal officers. Over the years, municipal commissioners and state leadership have actively urged citizens to use AMC Seva, including during municipal drives like Mission Million Trees, where sapling requests were handled exclusively via the app.
Despite this high-profile institutional backing, the app holds a meager rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars across roughly 1,000 reviews on the Play Store. The user feedback is consistently scathing:
- "Terrible service," wrote one user. "Unable to open or connect to the app since morning—it just keeps timing out or failing to load. A civic app meant for citizen grievances shouldn't have such unreliable servers. AMC needs to fix the server infrastructure and connectivity bugs ASAP."
- Another noted: "AMC Seva was working fine for raising complaints for 2–3 days, but unfortunately it has stopped working for the last 3 days. Under 'View Complaint,' it shows 'No data found,' and no new complaints are being created either."
- During recent monsoon waterlogging, another citizen remarked: "Extremely poor app! During heavy rain and waterlogging, this app does not open at all. It crashes right when people need help the most."
The second app, CCRS Citizen, is officially registered under the AMC itself. Marketed as an agile platform that "enhances user delight" through "real-time complaint status checks and quick turnaround times," it fares even worse, scoring an abysmal 2.0 out of 5 stars across nearly 300 reviews.
Why the civic body felt compelled to launch a second platform in 2019 that largely duplicates AMC Seva's core features—registering complaints, tracking ward-level status, and viewing tax records—remains an administrative puzzle. Predictably, user feedback mirrors that of its counterpart:
- "While signing up, I entered all my details. After that, an OTP verification screen appeared with the message 'Sit back while we verify your account.' I sat back for at least 5 minutes through multiple OTP attempts, but received nothing. No OTP, no complaint registered, and no solution required."
- Another resident vented: "These people spend substantial public funds on app development, and after all this time, this is the rubbish they produce. They don’t even have updated AMC ward boundaries. The app relies on an outdated map that excludes major parts of Ahmedabad. When attempting to log a complaint, it displays 'Not in AMC area.' I hope they show the same restraint when coming to collect our property taxes."
- A third complaint highlighted broken basic functionality: "I wanted to log a complaint about an overflowing drain outside my home on the main road. The app failed repeatedly during password retrieval, forcing me to create an entirely new account. Even then, the map refused to pinpoint the location accurately."
- A fourth user summed up the prevailing sentiment: "Worst experience with a government-managed app. I have spent 10 days and over 50 attempts trying to receive an OTP. No login, no complaints filed, no work done—just officials sitting idle with zero accountability."
Sheth’s letter to the Municipal Commissioner underscores these widespread failures:
"When an app is to be updated, it should be thoroughly developed, rigorously tested, and only then should users be migrated from the legacy platform. In a digital age where technical workflows take minutes, is it acceptable for the AMC to waste days on end without resolution?"
He urged the AMC to issue a transparent public advisory regarding the status and downtime of these applications across local media, including FM radio, television channels, social media, and major Gujarati dailies.
The memorandum details a systemic breakdown across both applications:
- Grievances lodged via AMC Seva trigger automated confirmation alerts and appear on the AMC WhatsApp chatbot, yet vanish entirely within the app’s own interface, returning a persistent "No Data Found" error under the View Complaints tab.
- The applications suffer from critical performance bugs across multiple mobile operating systems. Neither provides an accessible onboarding guide or user manual.
- Uploaded photographic evidence frequently fails to render, displaying generic place-holder icons rather than the submitted images.
- Geolocation features remain thoroughly unreliable; the Near Me tab on the CCRS app miscategorizes private commercial storefronts like "Dinesh Footwear" under public municipal gardens, while returning identical, duplicate search results for specialized hospitals and basic medical clinics.
For an administration eager to project world-class readiness on global stages, its failure to maintain even a functional digital helpline for routine municipal problems illustrates the deep chasm between civic PR and everyday governance.
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