A tweet from Whitefield Rising, a community organisation working for responsible development of Bengaluru, earlier this week tagging the handle of Mahadevapura Task Force-Mobility and the latter’s response to the comments it elicited developed into a full-fledged Twitter war revealing Bengaluru’s infrastructure woes and citizen despair over lack of coordination.
Mahadevapura Task Force is headed by BJP MLA Arvind Limbavali and regularly gives updates on roads, traffic management, sustainable mobility, metro and suburban rail. But the handle often comes under fire for their way of handling citizen concerns through Twitter.
On July 18, Whitefield Rising tweeted, saying “First, it was BWSSB digging up and destroying all the newly laid roads. Now @NammaBESCOM is ensuring they will take up the mantle,” tagging @MTF_Mobility and asking it to coordinate a meeting with BESCOM to ensure some sanity? The tweet had the hashtag kundalahalligate.
Even Corporate companies cannot work in the way you are mentioning. Who will coordinate between 19 Government Parastatals and who will they report to??
— Mahadevapura Task Force-Mobility (@MTF_Mobility) July 18, 2022
The Twitter handle of Mahadevapura Task Force-Mobility replied: “Even corporate companies cannot work in the way you are mentioning. Who will coordinate between 19 Government Parastatals and who will they report to?” which elicited sharp retorts from other Twitter users. Parastatals are organisations or bodies not directly under the government but funded by it.
Quote-tweeting the reply, Whitefield Rising retorted: “The forever excuse. 19 agencies have to work together to give us basic utilities in Whitefield. 14 years and counting. No end in sight. Continue to give excuses.”
In another incident, a Twitter user Malhar Anjaria highlighted deaths in vehicle mishaps due to bad roads. “Sir there may be genuine issues you face but as a citizen I only know two citizens including a pregnant lady who lost life in Varthur near Myhna square due to bad roads and not enough infra. I don't feel safe and to make me feel safe is the responsibility of MLA and MP,” the tweet said.
The reply by MTF-Mobility to Anjaria’s tweet, downplaying the deaths stating that fatality is low in Varthur, met with a sharp response from him. “Firstly this isn’t a false accusation. It is a horrible truth. Secondly “lower as compared to…isn’t right way to value life,” Anjaria replied. The MTF account also replied saying, “If you choose to live in a developing area, be patient for the development to happen.”
When the Whitefield Rising handled joined issue, MTF responded: “This twitter handle wants to create issues only and not look at solutions. Who are you working for in the background?”
This twitter handle wants to create issues only and not look at solutions
— Mahadevapura Task Force-Mobility (@MTF_Mobility) July 20, 2022
Who are you working for in the background??
TNM reached out to the volunteers who manage the Twitter account of Mahadevapura Task Force. They said they had to respond this way due to abuse from citizens. Reacting to concerns flagged by Varthur Rising (another resident welfare group) over Varthur, MTF_Mobility alleged that their volunteers were misguiding the land owners in Varthur and delaying the Elevated Corridor Project. “The volunteers are also creating hurdles for a 10.5 km CDP road connecting the Outer Ring Road to State Highway 35,” they alleged.
Following the tweets by MTF, many users raised objections on how the political affiliation of anyone matters when the question asked was about infrastructure. One of them said, “this Twitter handle is bringing the already existing issues to light and not “creating” issues. how many more people are supposed to lose their lives before action is taken?”