(From left) AâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088photograph of garbage strewn near Apex Hospital in Borivli West uploaded by Satyam Goradia on October 8; and a picture uploaded by the BMC of the spot that was cleared the same day

With Big Brother (read: the central government) watching, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), notorious for its lackadaisical attitude towards citizens woes, is surprisingly toeing the line. A mobile app, Swacchata, designed by the Ministry of Urban Development Department (MoUD) and launched in August, and while it hasn’t been tom-tommed, it’s been keeping BMC’s Solid Waste Management department busy. With a 24-hour mandatory response time, the app has been working like magic.