Nagpur: With growing urbanization, the number of crimes is also increasing. The new Helpline No. 112 has been issued by Nagpur City Police for the convenience of the citizens for immediate help in case of accidents, any crime or other emergencies. But instead of proving helpful, this helpline number is leaving the citizens “helpless.” Due to late response by the police, the situation for the complaining citizens is turning worse.
For the safety of the citizens ‘100’ number has been given by the Police Department for help. As soon as dialling is done, the information given by the aggrieved citizen directly reaches the Police Control Room, from where the police officers alert the police personnel present in the beat marshal or patrolling mobile van of the concerned police station. That’s why it was very important to coordinate through this number to curb criminal cases. However, a year and a half ago, a new Helpline No. ‘Dial 112’ was issued in the State as well as in the entire country.
Hence calling 112 instead of 100 was required to inform citizens about related complaints and incidents. But, instead of getting rid of criminal cases, due to delayed help, the problems of the citizens are increasing. When a citizen is expected to get help within 5 to 10 minutes after making a call, the situation of not getting this help even after half an hour is often coming to the fore. In such a situation, the Police Department is having difficulty in curbing the crime. When senior police officers were questioned on the subject, the officer concerned admitted that there were some flaws in the system.
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Saturday 05 Oct. 2024
The system that causes problems:
Since the formation of Dial 112 Helpline, the matter of not getting timely police assistance to the needy is often coming to the fore. While dialling 112, it is mandatory to press 1, 2, 3 first to select the language. After this the call is transferred to the call centre located in Mumbai. It takes time to find out more about it. After this the available information is forwarded to the concerned police station in Nagpur.
From there the message is sent to the Police Control Room. The operators there analyze the call information on the screen. From there the information is forwarded to the mobile van of the concerned police station or the smart phone of the bit marshal. So this process takes a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes. Even after this, due to technical problems, information is not received by the mobile van or beat marshal.
Constantly checking messages is a challenging task
Vilas Sonawane, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Police Control Room said that messages through the Dial 112 system are often not received by the Beat Marshal. Every time the event message is given on their ‘MDT’ tab. However, it is not possible to keep checking it continuously while driving or doing other important work. Therefore, due to late receipt of information, it is not possible to take immediate action on incidents and control the situation. It is true that dialling 112 starts the process of getting information, he stated, adding the Police Department is working to reduce this reaction time. However, earlier control rooms functioned only at the local level. But now calls are made through helpline number 112 across the state. A special system has also been prepared for this. According to the data, the circumstances are not completely opposite either. Some people have also received immediate help through this system.
After the information is displayed on everyone’s screen in the smart control room, mobile vans located in the respective area are informed about any incident. However, since information also takes time to reach, the beat marshals or mobile vans at the scene immediately move on to another call. That’s why citizens are not getting help in most of the cases, it is learnt.
