Hyderabad: Calls flood emergency helpline

Hyderabad: The police emergency helpline 'Dial 100' has seen a spike in distress calls since the imposition of lockdown. Says Chandra Shekhar, Inspector and in-charge of 'Dial 100' Police

Emergency Service: "Around 90,920 calls were received in the control room relating to the Covid situation during the lockdown.

Before the lockdown, the control room used to receive an average of 28,000 to 30,000 calls per day. Of them around 4,000 emergency calls were referred to police stations every day. The number of calls rose steeply after the state government announced that people can 'Dial 100' for any emergency.

Now, on an average, we are receiving over 70,000 calls a day." During the lockdown period, the control room is being flooded with calls related to mass gathering, transport, non-availability of goods, shops closed/open, vacating hostels, essential services,stopping of employees carrying out essential duties across the state.

Since the lockdown was imposed in the state, the crime rate has seen a dip. As per records, crime incidents have fallen by 56 percent during the lockdown, including domestic violence cases.

As many as 96,438 calls were ineffective calls and due to such type of calls, many important calls were missed. Recently the state government launched an official Whatsapp chatbot where any queries related to Covid 19 would be solved and so the citizens can utilise the service, added the official.