“Don’t you know madam, if 1091 doesn’t work, you should call 100 or 10928,” said Uday Shankar from the control room.
Following the incident on Saturday when two City Express reporters were harassed by 20 men in Cubbon Park, we called up police officials for an explanation on why no help was provided.
The 1091 helpline in-charge, Rani Shetty said, “ It was a second Saturday and we wrap up early on holidays. After 2 pm, all the calls are diverted to the control room. I am surprised that no one answered the calls in the control room. This is not the case usually.”
She further added that on working days, calls are diverted to the control room after 5 pm. “We also cannot work till late night here. I am not a police officer,” she huffed.
On enquiring further about the ‘line-exchange’ confusion, Uday Shankar said, “The calls that come on 1091 are diverted by the exchange, not by us.”
When we informed B Dayanand, Joint Commissioner of Police, about the incident he said, "I am not aware of this at all. I will check with the policemen and find out what really happened. Unless that is done, I cannot really comment on the issue.”