Thaindian News

Meerut, April 4 (IANS) The traffic police in this Uttar Pradesh city Monday became the latest in India to open up a page on social networking site Facebook to get feedback and suggestions on traffic management.

The new account on Facebook named Traffic Police Meerut is the initiative of the city’s traffic police chief Sudhir Kumar Singh. It is the second Facebook account set up by traffic police in the state after Noida township.

“The main objective behind opening the account is to reach the public for inviting suggestions, complaints and feedback that would help us bring improvement in the traffic management of the city,” Singh told reporters in Meerut, some 500 km from Lucknow.

“Several people hesitate approaching the police when they come across any anomaly or irregularity. But, with the creation of the account the people would get a direct link to approach higher officials for getting themselves heard,” he added.

Meerut traffic police have invited the people to register their complaints related to overloading or overspeeding, or police demanding money from the public, along with audio and visual evidences.

“Audio and visual evidences can be gathered easily with the mobile phones being carried by most of us. I want to assure the people that after screening the audio-visual evidences, necessary action would be taken against the erring officials,” said Singh.

“At the same time, the account will also enable us to convey traffic updates to the public. For example, information related to traffic diversions can be posted on the account,” he added.

Authorities now plan to make the people aware about the new initiative through electronic and print media.

After Delhi Traffic Police’s started the trend, several traffic police forces, especially in metropolitan cities and state capitals across India, opened their Facebook accounts to reach out to the people.