Bhubaneswar: Notwithstanding the pressure the police department has to undergo to redress the grievances of the citizens, the top cops of the department have, in the last few months, increased their digital footprint and their outreach to the citizens.
In a move which can help in reducing the police-public communication game, top police officials including the Director General of Police (DGP), Inspector General (IG), Police Commissioner and Odisha Police as a whole are now on social media sites to provide relief in real time basis.
The twitter handles of the Odisha Police, Twin City Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi, DGP BK Sharma, DCP (Traffic) Sagarika Nath and others have become dens for registering grievances with the top cops and also seek relief on real time basis.
Many a time, action taken reports from such cops are passed directly to the citizens from them. Several anxious citizens also pose their queries relating to the legal remedies on the twitter handles of the police and they get authentic information from the horse’s mouth sitting at home. Many cases of criminal activities, flouting of norms are now also getting registered on the twitter handles.
“Social media is a part of our lives today. There are many people on social media. We receive many reports, rumors and even jokes on the social site. We try to assuage their anger, anxiety whenever possible. Earlier there were different ways to show one’s anger on the police, now people throw tweets at us,” said Sudhanshu Sarangi, Twin City Police Commissioner.
With the introduction of the new Motor Vehicle Act, the Police Department is bombarded with queries, reports of public and police personnel, in some cases, not following the new law. The police, on the other hand, follow the genuine cases of rule breaking and issue notices to the erring commuters or take action against culprits from other crimes too.
Nevertheless, some other departments too have become smarter digitally to connect with the citizens. The twitter handles of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) have also been using the electronic ways to reach out to the citizens.
Ranging from the piled up garbage to other civic issues, the online team of BMC is taking stock of the online reports and tries to resolve it and also inform the complainants online of the action taken. The CESU is also working hard to inform its consumers about power cuts and other complaints received online.