Hooghly administration takes steps to handle any emergency
All the municipality and panchayat areas within Hooghly district are on high alert to face any kind of emergency situation arising from the cyclone.
The Union government is all set to introduce a uniform emergency number — 112 that will work across the country, officials said.
The scheme is expected to be launched soon and sources in Chandigarh said that emergency services including Police have put in place all necessary measures and are awaiting a go ahead from the Centre.
However, the final call by the Central government will be taken once all the states express their readiness.
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The emergency number will help people connect to police, ambulance and fire services instantly making different numbers for different emergency services redundant.
Sources in the police department revealed that the number 112 is already operational in Chandigarh from the back end of the BSNL as all the calls meant for the fire, ambulance and Police Control Room (PCR) are being diverted to the number 112. They are received in the police control rooms which are further forwarded to the concerned department as per requirement.
“Our control room receives close to 3,000 calls every day. Most of the calls are regarding some inquiry or to get a particular number of different departments. The number of emergency calls is roughly 300 calls,” said a police officer.
When asked about whether diverting all the class to the police control room will add to the work load there, the official said, “We are prepared and there will not be any added pressure. As such we are already handling all the calls pretty well.”
An extensive awareness drive for the use of number 112 will be carried out once the Centre officially announces the launch of the scheme.
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