Police social media cell wins e-governance award

Recognition for its non-conventional awareness campaigns through social media platforms

Having won accolades from far and wide since its inception just over two years ago, the social media cell of the Kerala Police added yet another feather to its cap by winning the State government’s e-governance award for 2018.

It won the award in the social media category, with separate winners being adjudged in e-citizen service delivery, mobile governance, and e-health categories. The State government instituted the awards for encouraging innovative and people-friendly initiatives by various departments and public sector undertakings.

The social media cell of the State police won the award for its non-conventional awareness campaigns and public interactions through social media platforms. Headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Manoj Abraham, the social media cell boasts running one of the most popular Facebook pages among police forces across the world. With its humorous memes and sharp and witty repartees to comments, the page now has 15 lakh followers.

“Now, only the Facebook pages of Nepal and Malaysia police remain ahead of us, and we are confident of surpassing them shortly,” said a member of the social media cell.

A team from Microsoft had come visiting to study the police social media initiatives, while its hand washing dance video featuring uniformed cops propagating the safety protocol against COVID-19 had gone viral across the globe shortly after the pandemic broke out.

The State police, which have been using social media extensively to create awareness on law, traffic rules, and the pitfalls of the cyber world, also used it as an effective communication tool to reach out to people during the pandemic.

The social media cell is manned by a six-member team including Kamalanath K.R., Bimal V.S., Santhosh P.S., Arun B.T., Santhosh K., and Akhil P.

The Urban Affairs Directorate and the Mining and Geology Department shared the first prize in e-citizen delivery, Social Survey-Soil Conservation Department in m-governance, National Health Mission in e-learning and e-health, and the Kottayam collectorate for the best web portal. Six best Akshaya centres were also awarded.

A jury led by former Union Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan adjudged the winners.