Social media very effective for urban local bodies

If we take Facebook and acute public interaction into account then evidently, Hyderabad Traffic Police (HTP) Facebook page tops the list with as much as 20,000 followers. Other urban local bodies like Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board (HMWS & SB), South Central Railway (SCR), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) have nearly 5000 followers for their Facebook pages.

These pages have been helping people know about the civic body and also serve as a platform to share grievances. Here, the administration has the bigger job of answering grievances and interacting with people actively on the virtual medium.

Commenting on the same, Narsing Rao, Inspector of police, e-challan says, “The page is up and active since 2012. There is no better way than social media to be in touch with the public. We have nearly 15,000- 20,000 hits (clicks on the page) so far. Three dedicated staff takes care of the page. We update and answer the queries here. If we stumble, we forward the query to the concerned officer and the reply is immediately uploaded on the page. We receive over 100 queries a day.”

He informs, “We have nearly eight to nine administrators who monitor and keep track of traffic alerts, diversions, bandobusts, road digging, roads to be avoided, awareness programmes et al. They coordinate among themselves and ensure that everything is up on the page. Every hour, we also update the page with traffic alerts.” The Hyderabad Traffic Police page also updates news-links and accident reports.

When HTP updates people with news and whereabouts, departments like HMWS&SB addresses public grievances. An official from the HMWS & SB tells that the Facebook page has come to the rescue of public when it comes to water problems. We came up with the Facebook page two years ago. “Facebook has been a better way to communicate. People can post their complaints and we ensure we solve them.

There are a few instances where people send us proofs while lodging a complaint. These complaints are taken officially.”

“Apart from addressing complaints, we even inform them about the water issues and also alert them about the water supply. We have call centre agents to handle the page in two shifts,” he adds.