Bengaluru's Alarming Reality: City Accounts For Over Half Of India's Civic Negligence Deaths In 2022, Revealed By NCRB Report

Bengaluru, with 21 deaths in 2022, has recorded the highest number of fatalities attributed to civic negligence, according to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

This marks the third consecutive year that Bengaluru has topped this list. The incidents reported were three in 2018, escalating to 49 in 2019, but subsequently declining.

In 2022, the city accounted for more than half (51 percent) of such incidents in India.

Activists attribute the alarming statistics to poor infrastructure in the city.

Issues such as broken footpaths, pothole-ridden roads, loosely hanging cables, and hazardous electricity infrastructure have significantly increased the risk to citizens.

Sandeep Anirudhan, a civic activist from Whitefield, stated, “Most of these accidents would be due to poor footpaths and bad roads. Since many of the footpaths are either encroached upon or broken, citizens tend to take the roads, and this is dangerous. Also, the number of electrocution deaths in the city is concerning.”

Citizens have voiced concerns about the lack of coordination among various government agencies, making it challenging to assign accountability.

Prashant R, a resident of Vijayanagar, noted, “Every time there is a pothole-related accident, BBMP, BWSSB, and BDA blame each other.”

In October 2022, Bengaluru witnessed multiple accidents linked to potholes. Notably, a 23-year-old woman and her daughter were electrocuted after stepping on a live electric wire lying on a footpath in Kadugodi.

Some major incidents include a 13-year-old boy's death in December 2022 due to contact with a high-tension wire in Nandini Layout, a 35-year-old man's fatal accident while navigating a poorly patched-up road in Rajajinagar in November 2022, and the death of a 50-year-old woman in a pothole-related incident in West Bengaluru and a 22-year-old in Yelahanka in October 2022.