Further strengthening the emergency redressal system for citizens of Punjab, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched DIAL 112 – a single number that will replace the Dial 100 police helpline in the next two months.

Facts :

• 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.
• ERSS, which is already operational in two states earlier i.e Himachal Pardesh and Nagaland, is a fully equipped system offering end-to-end management of emergency calls by citizens.
• Added features for women in distress are a highlight of this system, besides prompt response to the various emergencies of citizens relating to police, health and fire services, on pan India basis. The Nirbhaya Fund has provided finances for the women calling facility.
• With the fully automated and computerized facility, each call will be recorded efficiently, leading to improved police support/response to any crisis/distress situation. Initially, the aim is to achieve a response time of 10 to 12 minutes to any call, which is sought to be brought down to around 8 minutes within the next 6-8 months.
• Senior officers will be able to closely monitor day-to-day reporting of grievances of citizens at 112 number. The system will become an effective management tool for analysis of Crime trends and thus will help Senior Police managers in planning & organising police resources in an effective manner to control crime.
• It will also lead to synergisation of responses of Police, Health and Fire services in situation of disasters (both natural and manmade), which will help in saving precious human lives.
• Today’s launch makes the scheme functional in 14 States/UTs, including Punjab. In the first phase, the system would cater to police emergencies, with other services including emergency callings of Health and Fire services to be added subsequently.
• The Chief Minister, who dialed the first experimental call, expressed the confidence that this people friendly initiative would go a long way in further complementing state’s endeavour to augment the state’s law & order machinery, and augment the people’s trust in the administration.
• This service would help in ensuring clean, efficient and transparent governance, for which the state government had already initiated several path-breaking reforms since its installation in March, 2017.
• Also, 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. It would further improve the overall security environment in state and would also help in prevention of crime.
• ERSS has been designed to address all emergency signals received from citizens through voice call, e-mail, panic SOS signal, ERSS web portal etc. thereby, serving as a multi-model platform for citizens to lodge their grievances or queries.
• Citizens can call and communicate by dialling 112, logging on to dial-112@punjabpolice.gov.in, pressing the panic button message at “112 INDIA” APP or register grievance at 112.gov.in. Direct web link to 112.gov.in would be helpful for people residing in foreign countries, especially NRIs.
• The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) integrates police (100), fire (101) and women (1090) helpline numbers into a single 112 helpline number and the process is on to integrate the health emergency number (108) soon.
• ERRS is funded jointly by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India and Punjab Government.
• Funds to the tune of Rs. 9.28 crores have been allocated by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the State for the project. Of this, Rs. 3 crores were released in March, 2018 for the first phase of the project and Rs. 5.21 crore allotted for the purchase of Mobile Data Terminals. Besides, the state government has already provided funds to the tune of Rs.6 crores for early completion of this project, and would construct NERS Building on its own land at Sector-89 in Mohali.
• All calls to 112 from across the entire State of Punjab will land at the Central Call Taking Centre, located at Punjab Police Housing Corporation Building, Phase-VII, SAS Nagar 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.
• The entire State of Punjab would be covered by these 12 dispatch centres. 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 Mobile Data Terminals (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 & vehicles.
• The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Department of Electronics and Information Technology, a GoI agency, had been engaged as a “Total Solution Provider” for this project and entrusted with the responsibility of installation of the entire system of Hardware and Software.
• C-DAC authorities would run this project for an initial three years by way of providing technical and other hand-handling support. However, the persons manning 112 will be provided by Punjab Police.