Prime Minister's Office created Twitter handle on April 28 to make public the funds received from various sources and to channelize it to help the earthquake victims. Similarly, the National Emergency Center joined Twitter on April 30 to inform the public about casualties and relief efforts being carried out by the government across the country.The Nepal Police's decision to join twitter on April 27 has been appreciated by Twitter users and the credit for this solely goes to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dr Rajib Subba.
Subba, a PhD holder in social media and crisis management from the University of Hawaii, United States of America, is currently handling social media—Facebook and Twitter—for the Nepal Police.
"We receive around 20 direct messages (DMs) on Twitter every day," Subba said. All these complaints are circulated to respective departments so that actions can be taken immediately.
"Our sole aim of joining Twitter was to interact with the public on social networking sites," Subba said, and the initiative has served the purpose as more than 12.3K Twitter users have already been following the police on Twitter.
Though Subba's team consists of 10 members, he is the only man responsible for tweets from the police. "I am sometimes assisted by DSP Rabindra Singh," the SSP said.
Sharing his twitter experience, Subba said that his department on Wednesday seized a drone from Guheshwari area based on a tweet from Santosh Sigdel (@sigdelsantosh). The drones are not allowed to fly without approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
The police decision to join Twitter is in part its efforts to maintain constant touch with the public, co-spokesperson of Nepal Police SSP Sarbendra Khanal said. "Nepal Police is a security force that remains directly in touch with the public and it is the first security force to act immediately after the disaster," he added, "So, my department cannot turn a blind eye to public opinion."
Inspector General of Police Upendra Kanta Aryal, Assistant Inspector General of Police Bigyan Raj Sharma and Khanal toured the Valley when the police received a complaint on Twitter that some youths were spreading rumors about the possibility of a bigger earthquake. "We had decided to tour with our IGP, thinking this would send across a positive message to the public," he said. Two youths accused of creating panic by spreading such rumors were later arrested from Lalitpur and Kathmandu.
In yet another incident, one Sagar Wagle (@invinciblewagle) from Tanahun complained that some police personnel, who visited his village Turture left without taking action saying the area does not fall under their jurisdiction. Wagle tweeted the whole incident.
Upon receiving the complaint, the police headquarters directed Tanahun District Police Office to act immediately. A police team was sent to his village, but the team expressed dissatisfaction over the complaint to the headquarters, Wagle later tweeted.
Nepal Police receive complaints ranging from black marketing to high fares charged by public transportation. "We had set up multiple check posts along the highway to take action against public vehicles charging high fares to passengers," SSP Subba said.
Besides social media, Subba's department has also initiated an SMS campaign. "We received around 8,000 SMSs in the four days after the April 25 earthquake," he said.
"We are here to stay now," Subba said referring to their presence on Twitter.
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