Residents will soon be able to reach out to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) through social media with the civic body planning to ramp up its online presence and outreach.
While the NDMC has had a Twitter account (@tweetndmc) since October 2014, the local body has not been very active, with only 116 tweets and 398 followers as of Wednesday evening.
Tweeting sporadically about events organised by it, the NDMC Twitter account has received few complaints from citizens about cleanliness in Lutyens’ Delhi.
The NDMC area is undoubtedly the cleanest part of Delhi, and was ranked fourth in the country as per the Union Urban Development Ministry’s Swachh Survekshan report 2016. The NDMC ranked first when it came to the criteria of “service levels”. However, it was ranked 24 for the criteria of “citizen’s feedback”.
Recognising the need to improve its public grievance redressal mechanism, the NDMC will be focusing on reaching out to people through social media.
Naresh Kumar, the chairperson of the NDMC, told The Hindu that the civic body will be promoting its social media accounts as a way for citizens to connect.
“We will be setting up a dedicated team for social media. We will be more active online, particularly to facilitate interactions between the NDMC and the citizens,” said Mr. Kumar.
Smart City
The NDMC area is among those chosen for funding under the Centre’s Smart City Challenge, which also puts emphasis on online services.
According to the Smart City scheme, one of the features of a truly smart city would be “citizen-friendly and cost-effective” governance, with the use of online services, especially mobile apps.
The rules for the scheme say that “e-groups” should be set up to get feedback from people.
