'Big shame for Karnataka': Mohandas Pai as Bengaluru ranked fifth dirtiest among major Indian cities

Mohandas Pai, former CFO and Board Member at Infosys, on Wednesday criticised the Karnataka government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), raising concerns over the city's civic condition and infrastructure.

In a post on X, Pai wrote: "A big shame for Bengaluru and Karnataka. We have a city corporation @BBMPCOMM @BBMPofficial and govt @CMofKarnataka @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar which cannot even keep the city clean! Terrible governance."

Pai's criticism came after Bengaluru was ranked fifth dirtiest among major Indian cities in Swachh Survekshan 2025. His post drew reactions from several social media users. One user wrote, "Simply building a glitzy airport doesn’t make Bengaluru world-class… It’s almost like the Bengaluru civic agencies are totally missing." Another added, “The entire city is a dump yard.”

One more user wrote, “A proper plan should be prepared to reduce traffic in the city and the city’s clusters should be upgraded.”

One comment pointed to the city’s previous rankings: “In 2015 we were the 15th cleanest city in the country. We can feel where it stands now, so these results are no surprise.”

According to the Swachh Survekshan 2015, Bengaluru was ranked 15th among 476 cities across India in terms of cleanliness. However, in recent years, the city’s position has consistently declined due to issues such as unmanaged waste, poor drainage, and traffic congestion.

Pai has repeatedly raised civic concerns in the past about Bengaluru’s civic infrastructure. In earlier posts this year, he had raised issues related to potholes, garbage accumulation, traffic congestion, alleged administrative inaction and what he has described as a lack of accountability from the authorities.