Mumbai: At a time when Mumbai Police have been garnering accolades for touching millions of hearts with their presence on the micro-blogging site Twitter, their Navi Mumbai counterparts are barely extant on this site, with a mere seven replies to citizens’ tweets. With just 37,100 followers on Twitter, Navi Mumbai Police have quite a few million to go before they can think of catching up with Mumbai Police’s 4.6 million.
A Twitter user, requesting confidentiality, said Navi Mumbai police’s Twitter handle has failed to draw attention and swift replies to citizens’ tweets are not forthcoming. Another user, Nayan Jha, a chartered accountant and Vashi resident, who travels to Panvel by car daily frequently tweets about traffic snarls on his commute, but all he gets is the usual stock reply, which is hardly helpful. On the other hand, Mumbai Police are quick to tweet back and reach out to people.
If Twitter is not very helpful to citizens, they can always take the e-complaint route, claimed a senior police officer from Navi Mumbai. “For people like senior citizens, who cannot go to police stations, the e-complaint portal is the best facility. An e-complaint is not an FIR, but on the basis of the e-complaint, further action can be taken,” he said.
The officer further stated, “Once a person makes an e-complaint, a police officer will look into it and reply if it should be registered as an FIR, NC or if it is a civil dispute. There is no time limit for responding to the e-complaint, but we try to get back within 15 days.” Similarly, in order to boost the online services provided by Navi Mumbai Police, Commissioner of Police Sanjay Kumar has urged people to make use of the online facility to register e-complaints and apply for permissions.
The success of Mumbai Police’s Twitter handle can be attributed to the pop culture references it makes and lightheartedly conveys socially relevant messages, using memes. This has struck the right chord with the youth, so much so that they retweet these messages, often tagging their friends.
With their perfectly-timed, topical and hilarious tweets on important campaigns, Mumbai Police’s Twitter handle has won the affection of Twitterati. The handle has referenced films and TV shows like The Avengers: Infinity War, Baahubali, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things and delivered some witty messages on safety measures.
