Punjab on Tuesdaylaunched emergency number '112', a pan-India network of the single emergency helpline on which immediate assistance can be sought by people.
The 112 helpline is an integration of police (100), fire (101) and women (1090) helpline numbers. The health helpline (108) will be integrated with it soon.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh launched the single emergency number that will replace the Dial 100 police helpline in the next two months, an official release said here.
"The launch of the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) coincided with the simultaneous national launch of the unique citizen-centric service by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi," the Punjab government release said.
The chief minister, who dialled the first experimental call, expressed confidence that this people-friendly initiative would go a long way in further complementing the endeavour to augment the state's law and order machinery, and the people's trust in the administration.
Amarinder Singh said this system would be extremely beneficial for people in distress situations, especially women and other vulnerable sections of the society, as there would be significant improvement in police response to calls during such situations.
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It would further improve the overall security environment in state and would also help in prevention of crime, he added.
The single number for various emergency services, which is similar to the '911' in the US, is being gradually rolled out across the country.
Funds to the tune of Rs 9.28 crore have been allocated by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to Punjab state for the project, the release said.
Of this, Rs 3 crore was released in March, 2018 for the first phase of the project and Rs 5.21 crore allotted for the purchase of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs).
Besides, the state government has already provided funds to the tune of Rs 6 crore for early completion of this project, and would construct National Emergency Response System Building on its own land at Sector-89 in Mohali, the release said.
All calls to '112' from across the entire state will land at the Central Call Taking Centre, located at Punjab Police Housing Corporation Building, Phase-VII, Mohali, and the same would further be routed to 12 dispatch centres situated in Rupnagar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Bathinda, Sangrur and Patiala.
There would be 49 workstations at this Central Call Taking Centre and calls from common citizens from all over Punjab would be received at 44 (call takers) of these work stations.
The location of patrolling vehicles, to be fitted with MDTs, would be displayed on the video screen of the dispatcher. The dispatcher would then activate the nearest patrol vehicle to reach the place from where the call originated.
The in-charge of the patrolling vehicle, after attending the complaint, will report back to the dispatcher with details of incident/caller. Once Mobile Data Terminals are installed in patrolling vehicles, the same would facilitate exchange of texts/mails/videos between different control rooms and vehicles.
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