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Soon, dial ‘112’ for all emergency services

People will soon have to dial just a single number ‘112’ to seek help in case of emergency situations such as availing services of police, ambulance and the fire department.

The proposal to have a single number for various emergency services, approved by the inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission, would be similar to the ‘911’ all-in-one emergency service in the US.

All existing emergency numbers will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112, depending upon the awareness about this new facility.

“The Telecom Commission has accepted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendation on single emergency number 112. It will now be drafted by the Department of Telecom and will require Telecom Minister’s (Ravi Shankar Prasad) approval. It will be rolled out within months rather than a year,” said an official source.

The source added that the panel accepted the TRAI’s recommendations, after including clarifications given by it.

In India, different emergency communication and response systems are in place – police (100), fire brigade (101), ambulance (102) and Emergency Disaster Management (108).

Also, a number of states have notified various helpline numbers for assistance to special categories of citizens such as woman in distress –181 (Delhi), missing children and women – 1094 (Delhi), crime against women – 1096 (Delhi), police headquarter - 1090 (UP) etc.

A person in distress will now need to call 112, which will immediately direct the call to the departments concerned.

The service will also be accessible even through those SIMs and landlines whose outgoing call facility has been stopped or temporarily suspended.

A user will be able to make communication even through SMS and the system will learn about the location of the caller that will be shared with the nearest help centre. The service will be operated by a call centre like facility, which will have representatives speaking in Hindi, English and the local language.

Points to be noted
  • A person in distress will now need to call 112, which will immediately direct the call to the departments concerned
  •   The service will also be accessible even through those SIMs and landlines, whose outgoing call facility have been stopped or temporarily suspended
  •   A user will be able to make communication even through SMS and the system will learn about the location of the caller that will be shared with the nearest help centre
  •    The service will be operated by a call centre like facility, which will have representatives speaking in Hindi, English and local language
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