Maharashtra police will soon accept complaints via SMS

In a first, Maharashtra police will soon start accepting police complaints from citizens via SMS (Short Message Service).

Apart from conventional modes, the state police currently allows individuals to file complaints on their website and via their social media account on Twitter.

Now, in order to limit the amount of manual work and make the process more accessible, Maharashtra police wants to allow citizens to directly file a complaint by sending an SMS from their mobile phones.

“An aggrieved person can register a complaint to the police through mobile SMS. This will help the citizens make their voice heard and reduce time in registering the complaint manually,” an official from the home department told The Asian Age.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick discussed the idea via video conferencing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his monthly review meeting last week.

According to the daily, the project will first be implemented on a pilot basis in one of Pune’s police stations. It will subsequently be launched across the state, including Mumbai.

Mumbai, which was one of the first cities in the state to start accepting complaints online, has received an excellent response for the same from the public.

In fact, in a short span of 18 months, their official Twitter handle (@MumbaiPolice) has amassed a following of around 3 million.

Just recently, Maharashtra also ranked third in the country for the implementation of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), which aims to interconnect all police station across the country.