Punjab police scales up 112 helpline to tackle coronavirus lockdown

Punjab police on Saturday further scaled up its citizen support systems, including the 112 helpline and supply of essentials, to cope with the emergency situation arising out of the imposition of curfew in the state as part of a nationwide lockdown in the light of COVID-19 crisis.

To further improve its response time and cope with the increased pressure on 112 helpline, police augmented the capacity of the call centre by adding 11 workstations raising its capacity to 53.

A total of 159 personnel are manning the stations, working in three shifts, according to Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta in a statement here.

The state government is also in talks with a private BPO firm for hiring a functional 100-operator station to supplement the capacity of 112 helpline, the DGP said, adding that they will join the existing workforce soon.

According to Gupta, the number of calls received during normal times on the 112 helpline was around 4,000-5,000 but it has now gone up to over 17,000 in the past few days.

Of these, around 60 per cent are related to COVID-19 related issues, including provision of essential commodities, emergency medical conditions & curfew related issues, curfew/lockdown, ambulance service, suspected individuals, among others, he said.

For further streamlining the system, the community policing wing of Punjab police has set up Saanjh Help Desks in all district control rooms.

The system helped the 55 families of migrant labourers from Bihar, residing in Ludhiana, get dry rations on Friday, the DGP said.

In Raja Sansi (Amritsar), groceries were provided to 30-35 families by the SHO in coordination with the local gurudwara, while in Muchal village in Amritsar (rural), a woman who had recently delivered a baby was rushed to hospital in distress.

Police in Mohali responded to similar calls to provide dry rations to 500 families and one cooked meal for immediate consumption on Friday.

Punjab police has also stepped up its relief operations and supplied 2,23,605 packets on Saturday an increase of 19 per cent from Friday.

In the last three days, a total of 5,42,000 units of food have been distributed among all districts in the state.