Next time you spot spill-over garbage bins, overflowing sewage pipes or stinking urinals, as a civic-conscious citizen you can do your bit by taking pictures and posting them on the Facebook page of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) or sending an SMS to the civic authorities.

The MCD launched its Facebook page in January this year and the integrated SMS service in March, according to Sanitation Updates, a Web site.

The Facebook page has zone-wise contact numbers. Also, citizens can post their complaints, preferably along with a photo. The response will be posted on the page. As far as SMS is concerned, the MCD gives a reference number and updates as and when the issue is addressed. The application has been designed by Gram Vaani, a start-up incubated in IIT.

The effort to involve citizens and monitor cleanliness in the city seems to be working to some extent. On January 8, a 22-year-old posted his complaint and picture of garbage spilling over from the dump near his residence in RK Puram, South Delhi. The next day, he saw the pictures of clean dhalaos (garbage dumps) uploaded by the MCD, says the Web site.

“This system is increasing transparency, fixing accountability and putting everything under public scrutiny. None of us like to be ashamed in public. So people have started working at the bottom”, MCD Additional Commissioner (engineering) Mr Anshu Prakash, was quoted in the website.

Out of the MCD's 12 zones, sanitation has been privatised in eight. On April 13, 2011, MCD Facebook page showed that it had received 397 complaints.

If the social media experiment is successful, MCD may later used Facebook to monitor its other services like public health and roads, sources said.

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