By PTI

LUCKNOW: With a view to have better interaction with people of Uttar Pradesh based in other countries and boost the department's image abroad, the state police is going to start country-specific Twitter handles.

"Our Twitter Sewa is a hit among the masses through which they are not only expressing their grievances but also pointing on our flaws.

We have now decided to launch specific Twitter handles for countries having sizeable population of people of Uttar Pradesh", Director General of Police, OP Singh said.

"We will be designating local coordinators in the chosen countries. They will be entrusted to inform UP police headquarters through their official Twitter handles about any kind of help needed in UP by NRIs for themselves or their family members.

We will be immediately taking action on their inputs", he said. The coordinators will also make NRIs aware about various citizen-centric services of the state police like Dial 100, 1090, Twitter Seva, e-FIR , deradicalisation programme of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), counselling by Mahila Samman Prakosht or any other initiative launched in future.

They will also be used for popularising good work/ humane stories / outstanding acts of bravery and duty of the state police besides rebutting any kind of rumour about law and order or crime front of the state.

The DGP said that timely action taken by the state police in sensational cases will also be propagated by these coordinators that will enhance image of the police and will act as a bridge between state police and NRI community for any meaningful initiative.

They will also rope in other interested members willing to be part of the local chapter of the UP Police .

The state police has already designated a coordinator for London and similar exercise will be taken for other countries too.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has nearly 3,99,000 followers on Twitter under its handle @Uppolice while state DGP has around 3,63,000 followers on the twitter handle @dgpup.

The state police had made its Twitter debut in September,2016, for better redressal of public issues.

"The Twitter Sewa enabled the state police to strengthen its primary relationship with citizens by providing fast, efficient and real-time public service," DGP, PRO, Rahul Srivastava said.

More than 120 verified accounts of the UP Police across districts and zones are accessible to the public on Twitter, he said.

The PRO said the tweeted complaints were recorded on a centralised dashboard and a docket number was allotted to each complaint, which was then forwarded to the district police concerned for resolution.