DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Police has opened its first virtual police station at Gopeshwar in Chamoli district of Pauri Garhwal . The move will help people, especially in remote and far-flung areas, reach police through Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and email. At the same time, the facility would be useful at the time of a natural calamity like landslide or flash floods or if Char Dham yatra pilgrims have complaints. An inspector-level officer has been given charge of the virtual police station which will track all the complaints made to police on social media. The remaining team comprises three Constables and two women constables.A WhatsApp number, a Twitter handle, Facebook wall and a separate e-mail id have been created by the virtual police station staff.SP Chamoli Tripti Bhatt , who has played a key role in the project, told TOI, "Earlier people had to come to police station with their written complaint to register an FIR. This is an attempt to reach out to people and help them get their matters solved without coming to the police station." She pointed out that this was the state's first virtual police station, which besides law and order incorporates and covers several aspects like disaster management, char dham yatra and revenue police integration. "It has multi-faceted aspects like social media monitoring, intelligence collect and crime data collection," added the senior police officer.As a separate location is still to be allocated for the police station, it is operating from the office of SP Chamoli at Gopeshwar. Bhatt maintained that the police station was inaugurated on Saturday and within the first 24 hours, around four complaints had been received through WhatsApp.According to police, the biggest aspect was that a complaint could be registered from any part of the district via social media. The videos and messages mailed or send by locals during any natural calamity like landslide or flashfloods would help the police teams prepare better for the situation. "A large part of Chamoli district is under revenue police and with virtual police station linking itself media, police, revenue police, disaster management, health, public works department, Mahila Mangal Dal, Gram Pradhans and Panchayat members, it would be better prepared to face any situation be it in the police or the revenue police area," said a source.

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