Bengaluru: Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Rajeev Rai, a member of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, has criticised the city’s traffic, calling it “most notorious” after being stuck in a snarl and almost missing his flight. His criticism drew a swift response from deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, who said he would meet Rai in New Delhi and “show him” the traffic situation there.In a post on X, Rai said he was stuck for an hour on Rajkumar Samadhi Road Sunday. He called Bengaluru’s traffic management the “worst”, adding that traffic police also did not respond to his calls. He tagged chief minister Siddaramaiah and Bengaluru’s police commissioner in his post.Rai, MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi, is chairman of AVK Group of Institutions in Bengaluru. He wrote on X: “CM of Karnataka, I am sorry but you have the worst traffic management and the most irresponsible, useless traffic police. They don’t even pick up phone calls. Here is the screenshot of my attempt to speak to them; none of them picked up my call. For the last one hour, we are stuck at the same place on Rajkumar Samadhi Road and are going to miss our flight. Tomorrow, I have to attend the Parliament session. Not a single policeman is seen around. These inefficient officers are enough to spoil the name and charm of this beautiful city. No doubt Bengaluru traffic has now earned the reputation of being the most notorious.”Shivakumar, who oversees Bengaluru development, told reporters Monday: “Let me meet him in Delhi and show him what traffic is like in Delhi. I will also tag him.” That meeting may take place as early as this week since Shivakumar is scheduled to meet with the Congress brass in the capital. Shivakumar had earlier faced criticism after his remark that “even god can’t fix Bengaluru’s traffic problems”. He had also drawn ire after saying that IT companies can’t blackmail the govt of moving out from the state over traffic woes.The 14th edition of TomTom Traffic Index ranks three Indian cities — Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Pune — among the world’s five slowest ones for traffic speed in 2024. The annual index, compiled using floating car data (FCD) from more than 737 billion kilometres driven globally, evaluates traffic across 500 cities in 62 countries.
