Jaideep Shenoy/The Hindu

• Site says there will be no further update till further notice
• The website provided information on the hooch tragedy and the accident in Arkalgud
• ‘In future, it will be used to post notes on crime and will be made more interactive’

Mangalore, Jun 6: It was set up in three days flat and served the purpose of information gathering and dissemination in the 47 days that it was active in the cyber world. This period included the crucial time when voters in the State were going about the process of electing a new Assembly. However, the official Police Department website on the elections, www.kspelections.com, has gone into sleep mode until further notice.

The last official posting on Thursday read, “The Karnataka State Assembly elections are over. The results are declared and a new Assembly has been formed. The State Police Department was maintaining this website in public interest. While the website will remain intact, there will be no further update, till further notice. However, you are free to browse through the information on this website.”

The Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, R. Sri Kumar, who was instrumental in setting up the website, was pleased that it had achieved what the department set out to do.

Mr. Sri Kumar told The Hindu that the flow of information from the department to the people and the media was good.

He said that the real utility of the website surfaced when the hooch tragedy hit the State. “We posted regular updates. This proved to be of immense help to the media — both print and visual — and they have acknowledged it,” he said. “There was a lot of confusion regarding the identities of the victims and the persons who were arrested. The website helped clear the confusion,” he said.

The website also kept netizens posted on other important developments in the State. This included news on the accident in Arkalgud taluk in Hassan district that claimed 25 lives. The posting had details such as names and ages of the victims.

Terming the website a success, Mr. Sri Kumar said it was only the beginning. “The website has proved how the Internet can be used effectively.” The department also used short messaging service (SMS) as part of this exercise. Mr. Sri Kumar said that in the future it would be used to post notes on crime as and when the need arose and it would be made more interactive.