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Apart from battling blaze, Ludhiana fire dept officials fighting obnoxious calls
The officials of firesafety department at Ludhiana are irked over the abusive calls regularly made on 101 helpline number.
Already facing heat due to the shortage of staff and equipment, the firesafety department here has another task on hand: Answering frivolous calls.
The officials at the headquarters are irked over the abusive calls regularly made on 101 helpline number. Such interruption not only wastes valuable time of the department employees, but also poses a serious hindrance in receiving genuine distress calls. The attendants claim that over 70% of the calls received are either abusive in nature or the wrong ones. As per them, there are people who call 101 to get new LPG connections.
The firefighters say the matter has been brought to the notice of the MC as well, but no solution has been chalked out so far.
One of the attendants at the fire brigade helpline, Pankaj, said, “Over 70% of calls that are received at helpline number are vacuous. A man has been calling up regularly these days to swear at us. Earlier, a woman used to call up and hurl filthy abuses.”
“People use the helpline number for their entertainment, but in this course the emergency service gets heavily affected. We have received complaints from people several times that our phone lines were engaged. We are at the receiving end with no fault of ours,” he added.
Sub fire officer Tilak Raj said, “These callers use abusive language to address the attendants and do not budge even after the warning of legal action.”
MC joint commissioner Kulpreet Singh, who holds the charge of the fire department, said the firesafety officials have apprised him of the problem. “I have suggested that a caller identification device can be installed. I will take up the matter with fire brigade officials to find a concrete solution,” he added.
Kulpreet Singh, while appealing to the residents, said, “Kindly understand your responsibility and do not disturb the fire helpline with your prank and frivolous calls. Such callous behaviour of few mischievous elements can cost lives if firesafety department fails to act in time.”
However, cyber crime cell in-charge Rajesh Kumar said police have not received any complaint from either firesafety department or the MC. “Same problem is being faced by the police department as well on their emergency numbers 100 and 181.”
The police have also traced few persons, including one at the Focal Point area, but he was not mentally sound.
Talking about the legal provisions, Kumar said an FIR can be registered against them under the relevant sections of the IT Act.
