David Bridges
Lucknow: Nowadays, there is a perception that social media has become a waste of time. But the same social media saved the life of a medical aspirant in UP capital Lucknow.
The moves comes after an agreement between UP police and the social media giant to save lives by alerting police on time and prevent cases of suicides, according to a report in IANS.
The agreement envisages real-time alert to police by Facebook when someone makes a social media posts on his or her intention end life. The social media site sends immediate alert to police control room providing timely intervention.
“After SOS alert, the information was immediately sent to the Lucknow Police Commissionerate and they were asked to work on the case. We have directed all the policemen to respond quickly to social media posts related to suicide and save the lives of persons who post such messages. Facebook has partnered with us so that we can respond immediately,” the report quoted Additional Director General (law and order) Prashant Kumar as saying.
According to police, immediately help was sent when the 29-year-old man posted the message to end his life. Police said the youth admitted to his mistake and assured not to repeat it.
“The youth said that he took the extreme step due to tension he was facing after not being able to crack the NEET exam. We counselled him that it was not the end of life. We have also provided him the police mobile number and asked him to feel free in calling up whenever he has any problem,” said Chiranjeev Nath Sinha, Additional CP (West).
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