Bengaluru traffic woes: MP slams ‘useless traffic police’; DK Shivakumar responds

Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Rajeev Rai criticised Bengaluru’s traffic woes and lashed out at “most irresponsible, useless traffic police” after he was stuck at the same place for more than one hour on the way to the airport.

Rai was in Bengaluru on Sunday (November 30), and in his post on X (formerly Twitter), he tagged Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Police Commissioner, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, to slam the authorities and said the city’s traffic was “most notorious”.

What Rai wrote on X

He shared screenshots of the phone numbers of officers he dialled in the Bengaluru traffic department who did not answer his calls.

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Rai wrote: "I’m 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 were stuck at the same place on Rajkumar Samadhi Road. I am going to miss my flight; tomorrow I have to attend the Parliament session.”

He added, “Not a single police man is seen around. These inefficient officers are enough to spoil the name and charm of this beautiful city. No doubt now Bengaluru traffic has earned the reputation of most notorious traffic."

There were several comments to Rai’s post, and he replied to one of them, asking the user to “shut up”.

DK Shivakumar's response

When an X user named Girish KS said, “You can leave Karnataka and can go anywhere you want. Don’t talk like an irresponsible person”, Rai responded, “Just shut up.. dare not to speak the language of .. (sic).”

Reacting to Rai’s criticism, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who also holds Bengaluru development portfolio, said he would meet the SP MP in Delhi and show him the traffic situation in the national capital.

"Okay. Let me meet him in Delhi and show him what traffic is like in Delhi. I will also tag him," Shivakumar told reporters.