UDUPI: Push by Karnataka state police for a pan-India single number 112 based Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) for citizens is inching closer to fruition. With the launch of this facility in eight more policing units including Udupi on Saturday, the state police is now left with nine policing units including Kalaburagi city police commissionerate where this system has to be launched. This process will be completed by March 31, 2021.
C H Pratap Reddy, additional director-general of police (Communication and logistics and modernization), nodal officer for ERSS in Karnataka told TOI that ERSS is an initiative of the Union government under the Nirbhaya funds scheme for ensuring safety of women and children. EESS is a pan-India emergency response system for citizens, which they can access either by dialling the number or through the use of app in smart phones.
The state police are learning each week with how to minimise the response time and this is a work in progress, Reddy said. Lot of work is going in to placement of vehicles depending on the number of calls received and this is being fine-tuned each week, Reddy said, adding at least three months data will have to be studied for effective placement of vehicles. “At present, 112 vehicles are reaching within 5 minutes of call in some urban places,” he said.
The centralised system has removed subjective decision making from the process of attending to distress calls, he said. “People can be rest assured that there is 100% response to their call,” he said adding the majority of the response that ERSS in Karnataka is receiving is through calls. “99% of the response recorded by the ERSS control centre is calls,” he said. The ERSS system is robust enough to filter out crank calls and deal with pranksters, he said.
Incidentally, Union home minister Amit Shah had flagged off 92 ERSS vehicles at a function in Bengaluru on January 16. ERSS will be launched in Chikkamagaluru, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Raichur, Karwar, Chamarajanagar, Madikeri, Mandya and Kalaburagi city police units. The whole idea of ERSS is that each call is answered within 15 seconds and response provided to the caller within 15 minutes and state police is on its way to achieving it, Reddy said.