Complaints by elderly bother PCR staff

Complaints about indifferent daughter-in-law, uncaring wife and neighbour’s scary pet are what the Delhi Police Control Room (PCR) officials are dealing with these days.
Complaints by elderly bother PCR staff

NEW DELHI: Complaints about indifferent daughter-in-law, uncaring wife and neighbour’s scary pet are what the Delhi Police Control Room (PCR) officials are dealing with these days.
In the past six months, Delhi Police have received 5,551 such calls, and that too from senior citizens. According to the data accessed by The Sunday Standard, 90% calls made by the senior citizens are non-actionable as they request police to resolve their issues with relatives or neighbours.

“Such is our plight. One day, a 73-year-old man from West Delhi called to complain about his wife not cooking food. He made multiple calls to the control room requesting them to sort the issue,” a constable at the PCR said. Not only this, if no action is taken on their complaints, the senior citizens approach senior officials, putting the PCR officials’ job at risk.

Delhi police said, “Last month, a senior citizen living in Dwarka made a call to the PCR saying his daughter-in-law was not talking to him. When cops didn’t react, he filed a complaint with the senior officials claiming that PCR staff took no action despite multiple calls, which led to an inquiry against the cops.”

During an inquiry it was found that he had made multiple calls that were unactionable under the law,”
a senior Delhi police official said. Police said most of them were retired government officials, who even go to the extent of asking cops to pay electricity and phone bills on their behalf as they can’t stand in queues. On an average, Delhi police gets one such call, which doesn’t require any action from the police.

In another incident, Delhi Police received a call from a 74-year-old resident of Tilak Nagar, who claimed that his neighbour’s pet tries to bite him, every time he comes out of his house. When a PCR reached the spot, it found a dog tied to a leash inside a house gate. On being asked, the complainant said the dog keeps staring at him and barks whenever he goes out.

“Of the total calls received from senior citizens, only 10% were actionable. Similarly, of all the calls received at helpline 1291 and 1091, 98% were related to personal problems like wife not giving food, feeling lonely in the house etc.,” the official said.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com