Pune: Social media ‘influencer’ Santosh Pandit’s videos on YouTube and Instagram prompted the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to repair more than 80 potholes in the city.
Pandit, a 45-year-old man hailing from Pune, gave a whole new meaning to ‘social media influencer’ when he took to the websites of YouTube and Instagram to highlight civic issues bothering the civilians. He gained a following of around 1.59 lakh subscribers on YouTube and 16,000 followers on Instagram, where he posts short-form videos about civic issues, potholes and damaged roads, in Pune.
His videos have prompted the PMC to take action to tackle the civic issues prevailing in the city, making him a civil issues celebrity among the masses.
Pandit, speaking about his motivation to start his social accounts said, “I am working in the social sector for the last many years and have helped many people who suffered losses in their business after Covid-19 lockdown. While working and making videos about social issues, I decided to consider ground reality and identify the problems faced by common people on a daily basis.”
About the PMC taking note of the issues through his videos, Pandit said, “From March 2023, I started making short videos about potholes, damaged roads and other civic issues to which I got a great response. After uploading the videos, the PMC officials would take immediate cognizance of these issues and repair the featured potholes or damaged roads. Till now, more than 80 such potholes have been repaired on priority, due to my videos.”
Pandit has become quite the public hero, with citizen plagued by their own civic problems approach him to raise awareness about the problem, hoping to get the PMC to take action. A citizen, Kamlesh Pawar, from Kumthekar Road area spoke about how they had called Pandit to raise awareness about a damaged drain, stinking up the area. Pandit came to the spot and “stood there (at the damaged drain) for more than six hours, raising slogans.” Pawar said.
