Gone with the tweets: The brief disappearance of UT adviser Manoj Parida from Twitter

Active till April 5 night, Parida had been tweeting about decisions by the administration and Centre to control the pandemic, even sharing videos of his making public announcements

After a flurry of tweets during the lockdown to prevent the coronavirus spread, UT adviser Manoj Parida’s brief disappearance from social media platform Twitter on Monday led to much speculation in some circles, especially as he had been interacting regularly with residents to coordinate supplies of essential activities here.

Parida made a comeback tweeting away under a new handle @manuparida1, cheekily adding “Back on public demand.” (TWITTER)

Active till Sunday night, Parida had been tweeting about decisions by the administration and Centre to control the pandemic, even sharing videos of his making public announcements. He had also fearlessly engaged with the public venting its anger on the administration after the door-to-door delivery system promised during the lockdown failed to take off initially.

By Monday, the account was not available, leaving many wondering what had happened to the man who recently courted controversy by posting what he thought were Chandigarh helpline numbers that turned out to be from Panchkula, or had wittily responded with “Mera job khatre mein mat dalo, bhai (don’t put my job on the line, brother)” when a fan posted: “We want Manoj sir as governor.”

However, by Monday night Parida was back tweeting away under a new handle @manuparida1, cheekily adding “Back on public demand.”

A technical glitch as of now seems have caused problems with his old account, though the jury is still out on that one.