It took almost a month for official page of the Chief Minister -- CMOMaharashtra -- to upload Devendra Fadnavis’s picture, because the person with the password was admitted to hospital due to dengue and malaria
Nearly a month after the new chief minister assumed office, the official Facebook page of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) of Maharashtra was finally updated with the picture of Devendra Fadnavis.
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The official page of the CMO was updated with Fadnavis’s picture on November 29, nearly a month after he took over as CM
The delay, uncharacteristic of the BJP government’s policy to utilise social media to full effect, is because the person entrusted with the password for the page is struck with both malaria and dengue.
The page (www.facebook.com/CMOMaharashtra) was updated and previous CM Prithviraj Chavan’s picture was removed, and replaced with the picture of Mantralaya on October 19 when the assembly poll results were declared.
Fadnavis’s picture showed up on November 29, when an official updated the page. The page was earlier being looked after by the IT department. On Monday, the in-charge of the page handed over the password and other settings to the CMO when he was discharged from hospital.
The latter will soon begin posting updates on the page that currently lies dormant. Fadnavis is already active on Twitter. While the Facebook page is verified meaning accorded official status by Facebook the Twitter account is not.
Fadnavis, following PM Narendra Modi, has an officer on special duty (OSD) to only look after social media and his YouTube channel. The CMO wants to share content on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and be active in the virtual world.
When asked about the issue, Rajesh Agarwal, the IT secretary of Maharashtra government, said he wasn’t aware of it, and blamed the transition in government for the delay. “It seems the CMO wanted the same Twitter and Facebook name, and hence, there was a delay on part of Facebook.”
But sources in Mantralaya claimed it is the same page that was being used earlier by the previous CM, and there is no change in name. “We wanted to retain the same page, because it is properly maintained and is on the lines of the Facebook page of White House, especially with the history of all ex-chief ministers available on the page. Hence, we waited for the person to return and hand over control of the page to us,” said the source.
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