KOLKATA:

Hi, hello, good morning, good afternoon, ‘apni kemon aachen’ (how are you?) and even I love you.If this isn’t all, the rest of the messages sent to a minister’s mobile number were seeking jobs, spiritual enlightenment and enquired about ways and means to attain peace. And senior minister Firhad Hakim isn’t amused.The urban development minister on Thursday made public one of his personal mobile numbers urging people to WhatsApp him about faulty bridges, clogged water, poor solid waste disposal and anything that is under his department’s domain for prompt action. On Friday morning, he received over 3000 WhatsApp pings — only two related to faulty bridges.Speaking to TOI, the minister was very candid about this. “I had shared the number with a specific purpose. I wanted people to share their concerns about bridges, stagnant water in this dengue season and even solid waste management. Since this morning, I have received over 3000 messages and only two reflected genuine concerns. These related to complaints about one bridge in Budge Budge and another in Baguiati. Both are maintained by PWD and I have personally forwarded them to the department urging action.”The minister did a spot inspection of three bridges in Kolkata maintained by the KMDA on Thursday. He had then told reporters that people in general can directly reach out to him on 98300 37493 and promised prompt action. The idea of sharing his own number was primarily to ensure that the minister gets to see the pings and texts himself.The messages weren’t only the greetings. While some enquired about his well-being, others sought to express their admiration and love for him. The remaining messages were seeking jobs from the minister, some spiritual texts and the last being on ways and means to attain peace.“It is very unfortunate that people have sent messages which are completely unrelated to unsafe bridges. Only two messages we have received on bridges have been sent to the public works department. I think citizens must understand that such important number published by government has a specific purpose. The unrelated messages people are sending to this number are being treated the way it should be done — as garbage. It is tiresome for an official to scan all garbage and filter the genuine message for action,” he said.This obviously had its effect. The minister is not even mulling to discontinue the helpline if this trend continues. This will also not impact his ongoing inspection of bridges. The minister, along with senior KMDA officials, is likely to inspect three more bridges on Saturday.The KMDA is also doing a safety audit of all its bridges and have roped in external consultants for it. “We hoped the helpline announced by the minister will come in handy for residents. However, this is being misused. We hope to get some inputs in the days ahead. The minister is himself monitoring all the messages,” a senior KMDA officer said.