Bhubaneswar, July 25: The state government wants to make its presence felt on social media, but majority of Naveen Patnaik's cabinet colleagues do not have presence in the virtual world.

The reality of several ministers staying away from social media became all the more pronounced today with the state government entering into a partnership with Facebook. The state government has partnered with Facebook to improve its public delivery system and strengthen its presence in social media to make the administration more responsive and interactive.

"The social media have become an integral part of good governance in today's world. It brings the common public closer to the government and policy matters," said Naveen while inaugurating a workshop on delivery of public services on social media.

The government's aim is to take forward the 3-Ts (technology, teamwork and transparency) formula of the chief minister. All the government departments and agencies, police and district administrations have opened social media accounts and are becoming active on these platforms.

A reality check by The Telegraph revealed that many of the 20 ministers in the Naveen Patnaik government did not have any visible presence on the social networking sites, including Facebook.

The chief minister has a Twitter handle, Facebook and Instagram accounts. While six ministers do not have accounts on Facebook or Twitter, three ministers are quite active. The remaining 11 have opened accounts, but hardly update it.

Higher education minister Anant Das, technical education and skill development minister Usha Devi, industries and housing development minister Niranjan Pujari, finance minister Sashi Bhushan Behra, forest and environment minister Bijoyshree Routray and women and child development minister Prafulla Samal do not have any account either on Facebook or Twitter.

The ministers, who have opened their accounts, mostly re-tweet the chief minister's tweets and messages and upload photos of various functions involving them.

Among the ministers on Facebook, health minister Pratap Jena has the highest number (20,424) followers and updates his account regularly. On Twitter, he has 2,047 followers and so far made 66 tweets.

Though food minister Surya Narayan Patro has 256 friends on Facebook, he hardly updates his account. But, he is active on Twitter and WhatsApp. On Twitter, he has 598 followers and started sending government news on WhatsApp.

Naveen's senior colleague, agriculture minister Damodar Rout, updated his Facebook account last on March 7. Similarly, his last tweet was on January 26. Though housing and urban development and industries minister Niranjan Pujari does not have an account on the social media, he has been made a butt of criticism on it for his insensitive remarks on the issue of waterlogging in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Minister Pradeep Maharathy has 31 followers on Twitter and 2,555 on Facebook. He updated his Facebook account last by having a visual of the chariots of the lord Jagannath and his siblings as the backdrop of the account.

Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda has 1,234 followers on Twitter, but comparatively less number of followers on Facebook. He has made nearly 96 tweets, particularly on the Paika rebellion.

Revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty with only 12 followers on Twitter had last tweeted in July 2016. Labour and employment minister Sushant Singh had last updated his Facebook account on December 2015. Though Snehangini Chhuria has 51 followers on Twitter, she has not made a single tweet since opening the account.

IT minister Chandra Sarathi Behera is handling two Twitter accounts. While on the one handle he has 222 followers, on the other he has 61 followers. He mostly tweeted about the 22th Asian Athletics Championship.

Behera told The Telegraph: "As the government is focusing on social media, we, as public representatives, will use it extensively. But, I will open a personal account which I will share only with like-minded people."

Technical education minister Usha Devi expressed her ignorance about the social media. "I have no idea about it or about the chief minister's directive on the issue."

Higher education minister Ananta Das has no idea of what social media are all about. "What media you are talking about? I have no account anywhere. But if the chief minister has given any direction, I will follow it," said Das.