KAKKANAD: ‘Hi chakkare’, ‘Onnu Mindappa’, ‘Food Kazhicho’, ‘Sugamano’,’njan ini mindoola’, ‘hi sir’, ‘how r u’, ‘what’s ur name’, ‘Umma’...etc. Sorry to disappoint you but these are not the messages exchanged by lovelorn couples. And now your in for a surprise, these are the messages that the Motor Vehicle Department(MVD) receives on its WhatsApp number that it had launched to rein in road accidents and book traffic violators with the help of the public.
On November 1, as a part of the Kerla Day celebrations the Department had launched a centralised WhatsApp number 7025950100. Transport commissioner R Sreelekha had unveiled the number at a function held at Kochi. The department had also deputed an officer to the automated control room at Kakkanad to monitor all the messages pouring.
“We began getting crazy messages on the number 7025950100 after it was published in the newspapers. ‘Hi how are u’, ‘where are you’,’pls reply’ are the messages we have been receiving daily on this number. Apart from these messages we get weird messages in Malayalam like ‘onnu mindappa’, ‘sugamano’ ‘food kazhicho’,” said Abdul Navas, RTO (Enforcement), Ernakulam.
Besides the crazy messages, the department also has been receiving funny pictures and videos too. “We are glad that they have not yet sent any vulgar messages. May be because they are aware that this number belongs to a government department. If this crazy trend gets out of hand we will definitely take action against them,” he said.
The WhatsApp was a major boost to the department’s ‘Third Eye’ project and has been implemented in association with Idea Cellular
Limited. The department believed that with the launch of the WhatsApp number, they would be able to connect with the public and collect their feedback on traffic-related issues, in the form of messages, photos and videos.
But the elicited lukewarm response from the public and has instead turned into a time pass for the unscrupulous people.
According to data, the department has received only 35 genuine complaints from the public on this number. “ We could only generate `20,000 through this number from the day of its launch. We started this project to nab the violators who slip out of our third eye. It is sad to see that people are making a mockery out of such serious things,” said an official in the department.
“The attitude of the public is the main problem here. We have till now sent as many as 3,000 memos to various people for violating traffic rules though we have been hit by staff crunch. It is the responsibility of the public to support the enforcement.
Public should take advantage of this technology for making our roads accident free,” Navas said.