Uttar Pradesh, led by BJP’s Yogi Adityanath, has become the first state to make use of Twitter for reaching out to the people. With aim to bring transparency and effectiveness in governance, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked all government departments to join Twitter within a week.
The state government recently organized #UPonTwitter workshop in Lucknow and asked different department’s government officials to join Twitter’s live communications platform for real-time public feedback and quick complaint redressal.
“The UP government has recognized the potential of Twitter as a platform for effective integrated public communication and is setting a model example for accountability and amenability within the administration,” said Mahima Kaul (Head of Public Policy, Twitter India) in a statement to IANS.
“The #UPonTwitter workshop is a step towards encouraging more departments to utilize Twitter to drive public campaigns and ensure effective governance with real-time public feedback,” she added.
The workshop was organized to train government officials to make use of Twitter effectively by discussing the ideas for citizen engagement, Twitter rules, and account & safety. The Twitter executives also told officials how to use latest Twitter features for campaigns and analysis.
UP Police, having over 1,77,000 followers, is already using Twitter to engage with people in real time for faster response. On an average, UP Police receives over 200 actionable tweets per day of which the law enforcement department claims to resolve around 90 percent the same day.
Many central government ministers like Sushma Swaraj (Minister of External Affairs), Suresh Prabhu (Railway Minster) uses Twitter not just to redress citizens complaint but for feedback and other purposes.