On International Women's Day, Mumbai Police introduces SMS helpline for them, Rs.3.66 cr earmarked to revamp police stations
Diwakar Singh
New Delhi, March 9, 2014 | UPDATED 17:23 IST
Women, who take public transport and feel unsafe while traveling during odd hours, can get in touch with the police by sending an SMS about their location, destination and the registration number of the vehicle to toll-free number
9969777888.
Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) are also going to be asked to make
sure all taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers display the toll-free number on
the dash-board of their vehicles.Police commissioner Rakesh Maria said the SMS sender's mobile phone number will be saved in the server, which can hold up to one crore such massages and will be referred to as and when required.
Police officers said this number is not a helpline like 100 and 103 and will only store details which can be accessed later. Also, only an SMS can be sent on this number. The initiative was taken after the Easther Anuhya murder case, in which investigating officers were struggling to ascertain which mode of transport the 23-year-old techie had taken from Kurla Terminus, after which she went missing.
Maria explained that once a woman sends an SMS on this number, she will immediately get a call on her mobile phone as an acknowledgement and through this, the police will know her location too.
"The mobile phone number of the SMS sender will be directly linked with the ragistration number of the vehicle in which she is travelling so that the journey can be monitered," said home department secretary (special) Vineet Agarwal.
Officers are hopeful that the initiative will make cab and auto-rickshaw drivers behave as they would know they are being watched. Excutive director of the MTNL Piyush Agarwal said, "In the Delhi gangrape case, the victim's mobile phone was taken by the accused, who felt confident that doing so would ensure they would not get caught. But with this initiative, even if a victim's mobile phone is taken away, police will still be able to trace her."
Explaining how the software works, Maria said as soon as an SMS is received, it will be updated along with the mobile phone number and the date and time. The name of the service provider and contents of the massage will also be fed in the database. Just by clicking on data/time option, one can obtain the location of the sender and on clicking on the phone number one can access the sender's name and address.
Maria also said that to solve the problem of shortage of policewomen, 600 cops from other departments were roped in the last week. With this, every police station will now have at least 20-30 woman personnel. Along with this, the government has approved a sum of Rs.3.66 crore for improving facilities for policewomen at every police station.
A meeting was held recently between the city police and various railway security agencies and a unanimous decision was taken to set up a desk at six important terminous--CST, Mumbai Central, Bandra, Kurla and Borivali to regulate and monitor services. Taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers will be barred from entering the station premises and solicit customers. Taxis will be asked to queue up on one side and passengers on the other.
Such desks will be set up at two ends of the station at designated locations. Women and senior citizens will be given priority. Anouncements will be made inside stations, asking commuters to head to this desk if they need public transport.