UP Police adds 3,000 followers on Twitter in three days

The UP Police had launched its ‘Twitter Sewa’ on Friday

Uttar Pradesh police got nearly 3,000 followers on Twitter in three days after the launch of its ‘Twitter Sewa’.

Uttar Pradesh DGP Javeed Ahmed had issued directions to all officials to become active on social media. (Sunil Ghosh/HT File Photo)

Citizens can register their complaints on @Uppolice under the facility that was launched on Friday. “Citizens want the police to reach out using the new media platforms. Twitter Sewa facility has given citizens an easy way to forward their complaints and seek help from the police,” the officer said.

The number of UP Police’s twitter followers has grown by nearly 10,000 since August 20, when UP DGP Javeed Ahmad issued directions to all officials to become active on social media platforms.

“Social media has become a powerful medium to communicate with the people and it has become necessary for the police to adopt it,” Ahmed had said.

The UP police now runs 122 twitter handles, related to district police, 18 DIGs and 8 IGs. An official said with the launch of Twitter Sewa, the UP police became the only police force in the country to adopt the platform, statewide.

“We will have to post more people to handle the complaints now. Before the launch of the service, we had trained 240 officers,” said Rahul Srivastava, spokesperson to UP DGP.