Bangalore: This so-called go-to number meant to call the police in need is often not answered
At one hand where the police is making efforts to use online forums so that connectivity with citizens can be better; in other way the police emergency number – 100 is inaccessible to many citizens who are in distress.
‘100', the most needed and most popularized as the go-to emergency police number seems to be of little help or to say no help at all, as in most cases, the line is inaccessible and fails to connect from either mobile phones or landline. As per the complain of a resident of Malleswaram (name changed), she had not been able to get the connection to the emergency helpline regardless of trying several times a few days ago. Due to a large tumult near her house, she picked up her mobile phone and dialled 100. “When I tried calling the number, it did not connect. I asked my husband to try and even he couldn't get through. Since we don't have a landline number, we asked our friend to make the call from his landline,” she said.
That night luckily the landline worked. Though, there have been other complaints where calls made from landline connections that were also not able to connect to the emergency helpline. When they are lucky to get through, citizens complain that there is no response to calls.
A resident of Banashankari said that he too had tried to call the emergency number several times and the response was particularly bad at night. “If there is a serious condition and we cannot get through to the police control room, how do we manage? The only other option is to go online and check out jurisdictional police station numbers and try calling them. But there is no point in having the emergency number if we do not get immediate response,” he said.
According to the City Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi, there was a technical snag with the police control room number and the problem was being addressed regarding complaints. He appealed citizens in distress to call the alternate number 22942222 or to post any such issues on his Twitter handle, till the line is preset.
