Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur’s drive to address through Twitter public grievances concerning his ministry has started gaining traction and is drawing accolades from the social media users. It has been a little over a month since Thakur began picking up tweets for redressal of public grievances.

Over the one-month period, the minister has helped address grievances relating to three important finance ministry departments — Financial Services including banks; Indirect Taxes comprising customs; and Income Tax. At a time when the Modi government is pushing its flagship ‘Digital India’ drive and social distancing has become the new normal, the minister has been dubbed as ‘Problem Solver in Chief’ by Twitterati for giving a human touch to the Ministry of Finance.

A quick glance through the minster’s timeline shows he has picked up issues relating to filing of I-T returns, refunds, PAN linking, cyber fraud, customs clearances, distress of senior citizens and complaints from small towns, amongst others. One Twitter user Payal Jain reminiscenced his personal touch to that of the late Sushma Swaraj, while another quipped in saying Thakur is the political version of Sonu Sood.

Social Media users are delighted by their unfiltered access to North Block through the minister’s direct approach during these pandemic times. An SOS tweet was sent by Shubhrangi Goyal, regarding her deceased brother Arpit Goyal’s body awaiting customs clearance and that she could not afford the fees. When this came to the notice of the minister, he asked Indian Customs to swing into action, sort out the paper work and hand over the body within a span of a few hours.

Thakur later tweeted back “dear Shubhrangi my sincere condolences on your loss, taking note of the urgency of your request, immediate action to expedite this was undertaken @Delhicustoms”.  Shubhrangi responded by thanking the minister for helping her out through her stressful moments. Instances of cyber fraud involving senior citizens were also picked up by the minister where he tagged the Department of Financial Services and tweeted back urging “everyone to be extremely cautious while sharing their financial details online”.

Not only has the minister’s own handle @ianuragthakur been flooded with thousands of new grievances daily, but also the official handles of the ministry such as @IncomeTaxIndia, @cbic_india and @DFS_India. Other ministries, including Health and External Affairs, are also redressing public grievances through Twitter.