VISAKHAPATNAM : Even as the ‘Dial 100’ emergency service is registering less number of genuine calls, or more fake calls to be precise, in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana every year, it is getting good response from the people of Visakhapatnam district.
The emergency service in the district received as many as 53,500 calls till April 20, 2015 since 2013 of which 31,000 complaints were registered and only 1,560 (2.91 per cent) were prank calls.
During his visit to the city in January this year, DGP JV Ramudu told media that the ‘Dial 100’ service in the state registered almost 90 per cent fake calls. But, in the case of Visakhapatnam district, only 293 (1.76 per cent) out of 16,567 calls received in 2013 and 642 (2.27 per cent) out of 28,217 calls in 2014 were hoax. In 2015, as on April 20, the police received around 9,300 calls of which 810 calls (8.6 per cent) were found to be prank.
Control room inspector of police S Bapujee mentioned that they receive fewer fake calls when compared to other areas. “Most of the calls are regarding road accidents, suicides, group clashes, property offences and petty crimes. The police usually reach the spot within seven minutes and inform the control room about the status of the complaint so that the authorities would register each and every detail,” he explained.
Not surprisingly, even after the launch of the much-hyped ‘Abhayam’ and iClik services on January 20 this year, there has been no decline in the number of calls being received by the ‘Dial 100’ services. Similarly, the ‘Dial 1091’ service, which was launched for women, receives the least number of calls, just two or three per day, as people are dialling ‘100’ instead.
This year, the ‘Dial 100’ received as many as 2,185 calls in January, 2,837 in February, 2,864 in March and 1,487 till April 20, which is more or less similar to the number of calls received last year during the corresponding period.
“While it is a fact that people are much addicted to the ‘Dial 100’ service, it is not to be forgotten that they are not fully aware of the other services like ‘Abhayam’ or ‘1091’. However, there are cases where schoolchildren have reported incidents through these services,” said a senior police officer from the city.