New Delhi: The over 1,100 Uttar Pradesh police employees, who man the emergency 112 number from their office in Gomti Nagar in Lucknow, have become the state’s first line of response when it comes to handling the crisis that has emerged due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Number 112, whose main purpose is to ensure implementation of law and order in the state, is now also acting as the tool to help distressed citizens who have been calling 112 for medicine, food and other essential needs.
Number 112, which used to get 15,000 calls on an average in a day before the pandemic, is now getting 26,000 calls and thousands of messages on its twitter handle, with requests for food and other assistance from people who have no one else to look up to.
Number 112, which has a separate control room in every district, is relying on 3,000 four-wheelers and 1,500 two-wheelers to reach out to people who are either calling the helpline for food or tweeting it for assistance. “These vehicles work 24 hours and we have 35,000 officials who are working in three shifts on the ground after getting information from our control centers,” an official of UP Police said.
From 17 March till date, through number 112, there have been 98,000 instances where people had sought food, 41,000 calls of possible Covid-19 infected, 47,200 calls of crowd gathering, 6,140 calls of black marketing, 10,340 calls seeking help related to moving from one place to the other, and 2,965 calls of over pricing. In all, more than 2.50 lakh calls have been resolved by the 112 team from17 March till date.
Additional Director General of Police, Asim Kumar Arun, who is leading 112, told The Sunday Guardian that the emergency response number was now engaged at two levels of challenges. “This is a dual challenge that we are handling. 112 has to implement the lockdown and also help the needy. We have worked out a system of carrying food reserves in the police response vehicles and handing them to those who call 112,” he said. Arun, who is a 1994 batch IPS officer, is also known for forming the first district level special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team when he was posted in Aligarh in 2009 and has worked in the special protection group (SPG) and National Security Guard (NSG) in the past. He has also asked his men not to take selfies or click pictures while giving food and other supplies to the beneficiaries as people feel embarrassed after their pictures of taking food become viral on social media.
Arun added that due to the lockdown, the number of calls to 112 increased exponentially. “Due to this, the waiting time for callers increased to 2-3 minutes. To handle this and reduce call waiting, we decided to use 112 new recruits as communication officers; these officers are adept at computer handling and were given three days’ special training to handle 112. As a result, the waiting time has reduced considerably now,” he said.
According to him, his men are also working as awareness team of the government. “Our team members, who are always on the ground and present in remote and distant areas, speak to people on issues related to Covid-19 and make them aware of the dos and don’ts,” Arun said.
Number 112, whose main purpose is to ensure implementation of law and order in the state, is now also acting as the tool to help distressed citizens who have been calling 112 for medicine, food and other essential needs.
Number 112, which used to get 15,000 calls on an average in a day before the pandemic, is now getting 26,000 calls and thousands of messages on its twitter handle, with requests for food and other assistance from people who have no one else to look up to.
Number 112, which has a separate control room in every district, is relying on 3,000 four-wheelers and 1,500 two-wheelers to reach out to people who are either calling the helpline for food or tweeting it for assistance. “These vehicles work 24 hours and we have 35,000 officials who are working in three shifts on the ground after getting information from our control centers,” an official of UP Police said.
From 17 March till date, through number 112, there have been 98,000 instances where people had sought food, 41,000 calls of possible Covid-19 infected, 47,200 calls of crowd gathering, 6,140 calls of black marketing, 10,340 calls seeking help related to moving from one place to the other, and 2,965 calls of over pricing. In all, more than 2.50 lakh calls have been resolved by the 112 team from17 March till date.
Additional Director General of Police, Asim Kumar Arun, who is leading 112, told The Sunday Guardian that the emergency response number was now engaged at two levels of challenges. “This is a dual challenge that we are handling. 112 has to implement the lockdown and also help the needy. We have worked out a system of carrying food reserves in the police response vehicles and handing them to those who call 112,” he said. Arun, who is a 1994 batch IPS officer, is also known for forming the first district level special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team when he was posted in Aligarh in 2009 and has worked in the special protection group (SPG) and National Security Guard (NSG) in the past. He has also asked his men not to take selfies or click pictures while giving food and other supplies to the beneficiaries as people feel embarrassed after their pictures of taking food become viral on social media.
Arun added that due to the lockdown, the number of calls to 112 increased exponentially. “Due to this, the waiting time for callers increased to 2-3 minutes. To handle this and reduce call waiting, we decided to use 112 new recruits as communication officers; these officers are adept at computer handling and were given three days’ special training to handle 112. As a result, the waiting time has reduced considerably now,” he said.
According to him, his men are also working as awareness team of the government. “Our team members, who are always on the ground and present in remote and distant areas, speak to people on issues related to Covid-19 and make them aware of the dos and don’ts,” Arun said.
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