Telangana ministers fail to tap social media for public connect

HYDERABAD: Be it damaged roads, medical help, or even issues within government departments KT Rama Rao continues to be the go-to man for people in Telangana to resolve their problems. And this, despite the working president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party, holding no ministerial berth in the current state gover nment.
When this was pointed out to KTR, during a Twitter interaction with his followers on April 28 about the inter results fiasco, the former minister responded by saying: “I am an elected representative and can request officers to look into people’s issues. Why should anyone have a problem with that?”

Though his explanation holds good to some extent, political pundits say that it also puts the spotlight on other ministers and their lack of engagement with the public. In fact, a look at the Twitter accounts of these ministers, including chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, shows that it is mostly ‘one-way traffic’. These ministers are barely available to people on their social media accounts—either to respond to their requests for help or provide a solution to their issues.
In fact, of the 12-member cabinet, three ministers do not even have Twitter accounts for the public to reach to them through. On this list are education minister, G Jagadish Reddy; rural development and panchayat raj minister, Errabelli Dayakar Rao; and minister for transport, roads and buildings, V Prashanth Reddy.
Asked as to why there is practically no interaction between ministers and their followers—like KTR—Dileep Konatham, director, digital media of the governement, said: “Being interactive is not that easy. From June, we will be taking up an initiative to familiarise ministers and their staff with the use of the medium for a better connect with the people.” Incidentally, he added, it was KTR who got some of the ministers onto social media platforms during the previous term of the government.