Delhi CS asks govt bodies, depts to get their social media handles verified, expand online outreach

New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) Getting official social media handles of all departments verified and appointing nodal officers to monitor online outreach are among the directives issued by the Delhi Chief Secretary in an effort to enhance the government’s visibility and strengthen its public image.

Delhi Chief Secretary Rajeev Verma recently held a meeting with senior government officers over several issues. One of the issues discussed in the meeting was government's social media outreach, officials said.

According to the officials, Verma emphasised the need for a coordinated and proactive approach to improve the visibility of government initiatives on various media including social media and other digital platforms.

He also directed all departments, autonomous bodies and organisations of the government to ensure that their official social media handles are verified at the earliest, they added.

During the meeting, every department was directed to nominate a nodal officer, not below the rank of joint secretary, to coordinate and act as a single point contact on all matters related to media.

The nodal officer's job will be to ensure that all positive work, achievements, developmental and citizen centric activities etc. are published on social media without delay after the department head's nod.

The Directorate of Information Technology will be involved in coordinating with other departments to ensure that the positive work and achievements of the government are "appropriately projected, amplified and disseminated" through social media, said an official.

"Departments executing infrastructure projects or service-delivery improvements shall upload before and after photographs of projects on their official social media handles," he added.

The nodal officer to be nominated by departments will also have the job of quelling misinformation to counter any adverse impact.

"Any public grievance or default in public service like garbage not being picked etc. shall be immediately acted upon and action taken along with before and after photographs, shall be posted," the official said.

Earlier this year, officials had said the Delhi government plans to develop a single portal for citizens accessing its services and departments, with the capacity to handle 10,000 concurrent users and be “more informative and visually pleasing”.

The government had also floated a request for proposal (RFP) for designing and developing its web portal as well as associated departmental websites. PTI SLB NB