Famous for their quirky campaigns and replies, the Facebook pages of the Bengaluru traffic police and the Hyderabad traffic police are a big hit on social media. And now, both pages have been ranked in the top three ‘Politics and Government Top Pages’ by Facebook.
The social media platform released the rankings based on the traffic generated between January 1 and December 31, 2017. Bengaluru traffic police emerged on top with Hyderabad traffic police bagging the third spot. Kolkata traffic police grabbed the second spot.
At the time of writing, Bengaluru traffic police was liked by over 4.95 lakh people, and Hyderabad traffic police was liked by over 3.1 lakh people.
“In its initial days, the page was restricted to discussions on traffic issues. Slowly, issues like traffic diversion, introduction of new one-ways and VIP movements gained popularity. Traffic flow improved when we started reacting to comments made on FB through pictures and text messages. Pictures and videos of the traffic police accepting graft or misbehaving with the public had maximum comments and shares,” a senior official from Bengaluru traffic police told the Times of India.
The Bengaluru traffic police is famous for their memes as well as their efficiency, and they often undertake campaigns offline to create awareness about traffic rules.''
The Hyderabad traffic police aren’t too far behind. “We received the award on the overall activity of the page and we have a dedicated social media team, which is active round the clock,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Kumar told the Hindu.
The man behind Hyderabad traffic police’s witty posts in 2017, Harinath Reddy or ‘Admin H’, quickly gained popularity. So much so that memes were made on him. He was subsequently removed in May 2018, leading to many Hyderabadis downvoting the page and demanding that he be reinstated.
In an earlier interview with TNM, Harinath had said that the humour was supposed to be healthy. “Since we’re a government page and because we can have an impact on the public, we do not cross certain limits. It’s all about finding the balance with healthy humour,” he had said.