It is a photography contest with a difference. Send a selfie with a pothole and win a prize of ₹5,000 or ₹2,500 is the contest started by Marri Adithya Reddy. Posted on August 31 on Twitter, the contest has created quite a buzz on social media. “We have got over 80 entries in just one day. People are writing in from districts asking if they can send photographs and be part of the contest. One person just wrote about how his wife fell off the scooter while negotiating a pothole,” says Mr. Reddy, a Congress party leader.
Amar, a netizen, tweeted: “Every pothole in Hyderabad qualifies for first prize, you will run out of money as quickly as in an hour.” Another user Vijay Dhage had a little more optimistic message: “Hope after the sharing of pics, these potholes will be repaired.”
“Our maid’s husband Jangaih fell into a pothole while crossing a road. He was hospitalised for nearly 20 days. I thought I should do something about the road conditions not as a politician, but as a law-abiding citizen. Then this idea struck me. I never thought it would become so popular,” says Mr. Reddy.
The trend of trolling for a cause was started by Majlis Bachao Tehreek leader Amjed Ullah Khan, who began posting photographs of policemen driving two-wheelers without helmets from August 1. With a #PracticeWhatYouPreach, he flooded the timeline of Hyderabad Police and the Telangana Director General of Police.
“Till now, I have posted over 300 photographs. Every day I am posting about a dozen of them. The police officials sat on the issue for three weeks. Only on August 24 they began issuing challans to policemen with #PracticingWhatWePreached,” says Mr. Khan.
The war of hashtags has only raised the bar for policemen. Mr. Khan tweeted a photograph of a vehicle TSEG4137 at Ranigunj on August 30 and the vehicle was issued a challan by August 31. Same was the case with AP12F7431 at Purani Haveli. Incidentally, the vehicle has a number of challans dating back to 2014.
“The police are seizing vehicles demanding that the challan be paid immediately or they will have to go to the court. Not everyone will be carrying ₹2,000 or ₹4,000 in their pockets. In many areas, there are no speed limit markers, but the police are issuing speeding tickets. I am only trying to impress upon officials that they should set their house in order before punishing the citizens,” says Mr. Khan.
It remains to be seen how the civic body and the law enforcement authority react to the use of social media tools by these politicians to set right road and traffic conditions in the city.
