SAS NAGAR: Punjab today became the first State in the country to launch a multimode Police helpline for women, children, senior citizens and NRIs to attend to their grievances in a time bound manner. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal today while dedicating the toll free 181 Police Helpline to the people of State, said this would be the only helpline in the country which would ensure complete satisfaction of complainants. “No complaint will be disposed off till the complainant is satisfied that his grievance has been addressed”, he said. The Deputy CM also inaugurated the newly established NRI and Women Wing on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Badal said the toll free help line as well as NRI and Women Wings established at Mohali in a special custom designed building, was among the initiatives taken by the SAD-BJP government to make the police force accountable to the people. Explaining how the system would work to newsmen, Mr Badal said any citizen could register his complaint for delaying tactics of police or in anonymity complain about drug abuse, anti social elements or any problem of lawlessness or corruption prevailing in any area of the State. He said in order to ensure complete professionalism, the helpline work had been outsourced to a private company Ziqitza which would set up a 20 seat call center with a dedicated clinical psychologist as counselors to patiently listen to the aggrieved party and come out with a solution.
The Deputy CM said that this newly launched helpline having multiple modes of contact over phone, sms, fax, email and web-portal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week was geared up to ensure quick and easy access to police for police response, support, assistance and response, reporting of about crime and criminals as well as follow-up of complaints made to different police units/offices. Giving the details of the Helpline, the Punjab DGP Mr. Sumedh Singh Saini said the helpline would aim to provide “security with dignity” and that police personnel who would be manning the 20 seater Punjab Police Call Centre which will be managed by Ziqitza had been given extensive training and were earlier involved in managing the “108 Ambulance Service” in the State.
The DGP said dedicated help-desks for Women, Children, Senior citizens and NRIs along with 24x7 availability of professional Counselors’ and psychologists’ were the highlights of this only-one-of-its kind initiative. He said another feature of this helpline would be an assured time-bound response, to be achieved through persistent follow-up by Case Coordinators. Independent Citizen Feedback through a non-police interface would also be taken, he added.
Mr. Dinkar Gupta, ADGP Law and Order said the helpline aimed at improving the accessibility and accountability of the State police and enlisting the participation of the community through their valuable suggestions and feedback from citizens. He said the helpline could also help in the reporting of rowdyism, vandalism, drug abuse, eve-teasing and traffic violations. Mr Gupta said people reporting malpractices would be ensured of confidentiality. Another feature of this facility is that all calls would be recorded to ensure quality of service & discourage misuse of this helpline, he added.