Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Sep 2: In an attempt to get Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike’s (BBMP) attention on the crater sized potholes on the city roads, a Bengaluru based artist got an ‘astronaut’ to create awareness.
Baadal Nanjundaswamy known for his street art and installations is famed for taking a dig at BBMP by highlighting civic issues using satire and art.
On early Monday morning, Baadal recreated the scene of the ‘man’s first step on the moon’ and uploaded the same on his social media account. The video begins with a close-up of an astronaut cautiously walking on a surface that matches the craters of the moon. However, when the cameraman zooms out, people understand it is not ISRO’s successful space mission but the unfortunate condition of Tunganagar Main Road in Bengaluru.
"Hello BBMP Commissioner," Nanjundaswamy has captioned the video.
The video soon went viral across the social media.
"ISRO can train their astronauts in these roads so that we have a successful Moon mission in 2022," a Twitter user commented on the video.
"Nice initiative to make the government work," wrote another user.
The video has collected over 11,700 shares and more than 6,500 reactions on Facebook. On Twitter, it has gained more then 17,000 views and around 900 re-tweets.
"Chandrayaan has mistakenly landed in Bengaluru by mistaking it for Moon as the craters resemble those on Moon," tweeted one user.
According to the latest data as of mid-July, the BBMP claims there are only 2,840 potholes in the city. But complaints are pouring in from citizens that the reality is different.
In an interim order in August, the High Court stated that BBMP officials would be held responsible for accidents due to potholes. After this, BBMP seems to have taken the pothole menace seriously. Recently, BBMP imposed Rs 2000 as penalty on 10 engineers for failing to address the pothole issue effectively in their respective jurisdictions.
This is not the first time Nanjundaswamy has used his creativity to convey his message. He had earlier placed a life-sized crocodile in the middle of a street in Bengaluru as well as a woman dressed as a mermaid. Nanjundaswamy’s artwork is widely shared on social media, after which BBMP hurriedly gets the grievance resolved.