Frequently asked questions

No. PMA is an independent private platform. It is not the GBA, not BBMP, not a corporation or ward office, not the police, and not the office of any elected representative. We route your issue to those offices; we are not one of them.

No. PMA is not a law firm and is not your legal representative. Everything on Know Your Rights is general information about public law and public process, not advice about your particular situation. When a matter needs legal advice, we connect you with an independent Advocate enrolled with a State Bar Council, who advises you directly.

No. PMA is not a political platform and is not affiliated with, funded by, or acting for any party, candidate or political organisation. We do not campaign, we do not endorse, and we do not share complaint data with political organisations.

PMA is operated by Pickmyadvisor LLP, incorporated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 6 August 2026 and registered in Bengaluru. It is an independent venture, not a government programme and not a contractor to any government body.

No, and we would rather say so plainly than let anyone assume otherwise. PMA cannot move you up a government queue, and no fee you pay us buys speed or priority. What PMA does is make sure your issue is recorded, correctly addressed, and pushed persistently instead of quietly forgotten.

Three things. You find out who is responsible instead of guessing. Your issue exists as a record with a reference number instead of a phone call nobody logged. And when nothing happens, there is a defined escalation path rather than a dead end.

We test your coordinates against the actual mapped boundary of every ward. If your point falls inside a ward's boundary, that is your ward. We never assign you the nearest ward as a guess, because on a boundary street a guess is wrong about as often as it is right.

No. Location is always optional. You can search by area name, ward name, ward number or PIN code instead, and you will get the same ward page either way.

Change it — the detected ward is always shown for you to confirm before anything is saved. If your GPS signal is weak, or you are close to a boundary between two wards, we tell you and offer the neighbouring ward rather than deciding for you.

From official records — corporation and department listings, published directories and government portals. Each contact carries the date it was last checked, so you can see how fresh it is rather than trusting it blindly.

Because those words mean different things and the difference matters. Sourced means the contact came from an official record. Verified would mean a person at PMA has independently confirmed it is still correct. We are working through verification ward by ward, and we will not put a verified badge on a record until it has actually earned one.

Tell us through Feedback & suggestions. Corrections go straight into the verification queue and are among the most useful things anyone sends us — a dead number wastes every citizen who tries it after you.

Choose "Other / not sure" and describe it. Part of PMA's job is working out which department owns a problem — that is exactly the question most citizens get stuck on, and you should not have to answer it before you are allowed to complain.

Not to browse. You can find your ward, see the contacts and call anyone on the list without registering. An account is asked for only at the point of submitting an issue, so that you can track it and receive updates.

A clear description, a specific location or landmark, and photographs. Photographs matter more than adjectives: an overflowing drain with a visible house number is far harder for an office to set aside than a paragraph describing one.

We need a way to reach you, because a complaint nobody can follow up on tends to die at the first question. Your contact details are used for updates and for the department to reach you if they need access or clarification — not for anything else.

Yes. Most civic issues are not personal — a broken footpath, a dark street, an illegal dump. If it is in a ward and it affects people there, it belongs on PMA.

You get a unique tracking ID. The issue is recorded permanently, checked, matched to the responsible department and officer, and routed to them. You can follow every stage on the Track page.

Issues may appear on the public issues wall so that patterns in a ward are visible and journalists can see what is going unfixed. Your personal contact details are never published.

Filed — recorded by PMA with a tracking ID Routed — sent to the responsible department; the clock starts here In progress — there has been movement on the issue Resolved — reported fixed; you can reopen it if it is not

Because we have not yet confirmed that issue type's official timeline against a published source, and we would rather show you nothing than a number we invented. Your issue is still tracked and still escalates internally on schedule — the missing piece is the public figure, not the follow-up.

Ours. The clock starts when PMA routes your issue, which is not the same moment a department formally acknowledges it in its own system. We cannot see inside a department's internal queue and we will not pretend to. What we can tell you honestly is how long it has been since we put your issue in front of them.

Level by level. First a reminder to the same department along with local follow-up. Then the next officer up — zone or division level. Then corporation or commissioner level, at which point we also surface your own options: an RTI, legal-notice guidance, or taking the matter to court through an independent Advocate. Where an issue stays unresolved and you consent, it can go to our media partners.

Yes. If the fix never happened or did not hold, reopen it and it re-enters the escalation ladder at the appropriate level.

No. Escalation is best effort — persistent, documented and honest, but not a guarantee. Be careful of any platform that tells you otherwise.

It is not about revenue. A completely free complaint button attracts spam and duplicate filings, which bury genuine issues and waste a Ward Advisor's time on the ground. ₹1 is the smallest amount that makes a person pause before submitting, and small enough that it excludes nobody.

No. It is a PMA service fee, not a government fee. It does not buy faster action and does not guarantee official action or resolution.

Only when your complaint is successfully created. If a payment succeeds but no complaint is created, it is automatically refunded or credited. Duplicate payments are refunded.

No, and this is worth being precise about. ₹99 is PMA's platform fee for making the connection. The professional charges their own fee, agreed directly between you and them. PMA takes no share of a regulated professional's fee, and the ₹99 guarantees no outcome.

No. Ward Advisors are trained volunteers. They receive verification, training and a badge — not a salary, and not a commission on complaints. Nobody on PMA earns more when you file more.

See the Refunds & cancellations page for the full policy. In short: payments without a created complaint are returned automatically, duplicates are refunded, and where a PMA technical error is at fault we refund regardless.

They are not government officers, not police, not GBA or BBMP staff, not elected representatives and not lawyers. They hold no official authority, cannot order anything to be fixed, and do not give legal advice. They are neighbours who have been trained to navigate the system.

It goes to PMA's central team, who verify and route it exactly as an Advisor would. We are onboarding towards one Advisor in every ward, but we will not pretend one exists where they do not — your ward page tells you the truth about this.

Apply through Become a Ward Advisor. The process is: a basic application, review, shortlisting, a short interview, identity and reference checks for shortlisted applicants only, orientation and training, then approval, badge and public listing.

No — deliberately not. The application form asks for no government ID at all. Only shortlisted applicants upload ID, after review and interview, and only PMA's advisor-governance staff can access it. Documents belonging to applicants who are not selected are deleted. Nobody is listed publicly before verification, training, approval and their own consent.

Around three to five hours a week. It is a volunteer commitment, not a job, and it should fit around your life rather than replace part of it.

Training, a verified badge, a public listing on their ward page, and standing as the person in the neighbourhood who actually knows how to get things moving. Not money.

Advocates — property and land disputes, contracts, family and matrimonial matters, criminal and consumer matters, legal notices, and taking a civic issue to court Chartered Accountants — company and LLP registration, income tax and GST filing, book-keeping, statutory audits and compliance

We take reasonable steps to confirm credentials, enrolment or membership, and standing with the relevant regulator before listing anyone. That is a screening step, not a warranty: PMA does not guarantee the quality of any professional's work or the outcome of any matter.

No. Until we have a body of genuine, verified feedback there will be no stars, no reviews and no verification badges, because inventing them would be the fastest way to make this platform worthless. Listings under development are marked plainly as sample profiles.

You request guidance, pay PMA's ₹99 platform fee for the connection, and the professional contacts you. Anything after that — scope, fee, engagement — is between you and them directly.

Neither. They are independent professionals who are listed on the platform. They practise in their own name, under their own regulator, on their own terms.

When a complaint stalls past its timeline, PMA can connect you with an independent Advocate for a legal notice or to take a civic matter to court. A ₹99 PMA service fee applies for the connection — it is not the Advocate's own fee, and it guarantees no outcome. PMA does not draft the notice; the Advocate does.

The Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens (Sakala) Act, 2011 is a time-bound service guarantee for notified public services. PMA explains it in plain language on Know Your Rights. A public timeline appears on Track only where PMA has confirmed that issue's timeline against an official source; otherwise the page reads "Timeline being verified."

PMA records your issue, verifies it, and routes it to the responsible department's contact. That is PMA's own tracking and escalation — it is not a statement about where your complaint sits in a government queue, and it does not guarantee official action.

PMA escalates the issue level by level — a reminder to the same department, then the next officer up, then corporation or commissioner level — and can surface RTI, legal-notice guidance, or filing a case through an independent Advocate. Escalation is best effort, not a guaranteed result.

No. We try our best, we escalate hard, and we say so honestly. PMA cannot promise a repair, an official response, a legal result, compensation or a resolution — and no fee changes that.

The PMA team handling verification and routing, the Ward Advisor for your ward where one is appointed, and the responsible department the issue is routed to — because that is the entire point of filing it.

No. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with political organisations or advertisers.

Photographs are used as evidence for the issue and may appear on the public issues wall as part of the record. Please avoid including faces, vehicle number plates or house numbers you would not want published.

Yes, at any time — see the Data deletion page. Note that where an issue has already been forwarded to a government department, we cannot delete it from their records, only from ours.

It is collected only from shortlisted applicants, accessible only to PMA's advisor-governance staff, and deleted for applicants who are not selected. It is never shown publicly.

112 — all emergencies: police, fire, ambulance 100 — police 101 — fire 108 — ambulance 1091 — women's helpline 1098 — Childline 1930 — cyber fraud, best called within the first hour Every helpline shown on PMA is checked against an official source before it is published, and reachable in one tap from any page.

No. If there is immediate danger to a person, call 112 first and file with PMA afterwards. For women's safety and child safety issues the platform will interrupt you and tell you to call 1091 or 1098 before continuing, because a complaint form is the wrong tool for an emergency.

The accountability chain — issues recorded, matched to the responsible officer, routed and escalated Independent professional advisors — expertise available when a problem outgrows civic process Media — because sustained public attention is often the last lever a citizen holds

Because a complaint filed from a phone is a claim, and a complaint confirmed on the ground by someone who lives there is evidence. Local knowledge is the difference between a report that can be dismissed and one that cannot.

That is the intention. Bengaluru and its 369 wards are where the product is live, but the Constitution is the same everywhere and so is the problem. The Ward Advisor model is built to replicate ward by ward wherever we go next.

Because both halves of the problem are about reaching the right person — the officer accountable for your street, or the professional who can advise you. The name is about choice: you should be able to pick, rather than take whoever you happened to find.

Ward Advisor coverage, ward by ward, towards all 369 Verification of every contact and service timeline, replacing "sourced" with genuinely verified More complaint categories beyond the launch six More professional advisor categories beyond Advocates and Chartered Accountants

The site is built to work on any phone browser, including older and low-cost Android devices, and needs no download. We will say more about anything beyond that when there is something genuinely worth using — we would rather under-promise here than announce a date we cannot hold.

Because every route behind it has to be real. It is easy to list thirty departments and quietly route most of them nowhere. We would rather ship six that work and grow from there.

Three ways, in order of usefulness: apply to be a Ward Advisor for your ward; send corrections when a contact is wrong; and tell your neighbours, RWA or building group that the platform exists. A civic platform with no users in your ward cannot help your ward.

Feedback & suggestions, with the ward and the specific detail that is wrong. Corrections to contacts and timelines are prioritised because every wrong number costs the next citizen a wasted call.

The same form. A large part of what is on the platform today came from residents saying that something obvious was missing.

PMA is a small team. We read everything and reply to what needs a reply, but we would rather set that expectation honestly than promise a response time we cannot keep.