‘Nice to see some officials go beyond the call of duty’

Recalling his experience, Sanjay Pinto said, “There was a vacant plot near my mother-in-law’s house in Mylapore and people in the area had started dumping garbage there. After the recent floods, the garbage had just piled up. When my wife went to visit her mother recently, she took some pictures and posted it on Facebook. 

I tagged Vikram Kapur, Corporation Commissioner, on that post. Within a few hours, he asked me for the address. The next day, 10 Corporation officials came and cleaned the area.” Pinto added that this was not the first time that the Corporation Commissioner had responded immediately towards civic problems reported by the citizens. “I have only interacted with Mr. Kapur on Facebook and through text messages. I have not met him personally. This immediate action wasn’t just in my case. 

During the recent floods, I forwarded many distress messages from strangers to Mr. Kapur and he responded, even at 2 am, to say that the issue has been addressed,” he revealed. Pinto added that these officials truly raise the bar. “While people keep criticising the officials, there are individuals like Mr. Kapur and also many other officials, who go beyond the call of duty. The action taken on the basis of a Facebook post is a form of e-governance. It is nice to see our officials use social media effectively to address citizen’s issues,” he said.