Calling 100 in Gzb may bring Delhi cops to you

NEW DELHI: While the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi shares the same Police Control Room (PCR) number, 100, calling the cops has become a herculean task for those living in the NCR region as the control room has no clarity to which state's police - Delhi or Uttar Pradesh - should the call be transferred.
The problem became glaring when this reporter on Sunday tried calling '100' to report against a driver who created a ruckus in front of the Pacific Mall, situated in Ghaziabad right across Anand Vihar Bus Terminal. As the reporter called up 100 to complaint against the driver, who was still at the spot and was being verbally abusive, the PCR could not understand the location of the incident. After calling the PCR twice and explaining that the driver was still at "Pacific Mall in Kaushambi, Ghaziabad", no help came for at least 30 minutes. By that time, the driver had fled. Finally, a cop from Pitampura police station, north Delhi, called up after half an hour only to inform that the PCR had transferred the complaint to their police station.
When told that the complaint was made in Ghaziabad, the cop said there was another mall by the same name in Pitampura and hence the call was transferred there. This is one of many instances where police have goofed up in transferring the call to the right location. Not only have the residents of Ghaziabad and Noida faced such a problem, but those living in Delhi-Gurgaon border areas have also faced similar situations.
When contacted, joint commissioner (operations) Deepak Mishra, Delhi Police, said he was aware of the problem. "We know that calls made from Ghaziabad near the UP border and from SIMs procured from Delhi, get diverted to Delhi PCR. We are investigating this particular case. The Ghaziabad police had forwarded the call to us, which led to the confusion. Ideally, Delhi Police should have immediately alerted the caller that they were forwarding the call to Ghaziabad police and even provided the Ghaziabad control room number,'' said Mishra.
The Ghaziabad police said they are in touch with several cellular operators to solve the problem. "The engineers have told us that there are several technical hitches in getting the problem solved. For now, we have started putting up our other control room numbers at vantage points. There are too many towers in the border area which is adding to the confusion,'' said a senior officer at the SSP (Ghaziabad) office.
"With no clarity on which call should be transferred to which state police, a more-efficient system is required to tackle the problem. The service providers of UP are yet to sort out whether the calls - especially from the border areas - have originated from their own area. As a result, there's always confusion between Delhi Police and UP Police and the victims suffer,'' said Shrestha Pandit, who has faced a similar situation on more than one occasion. She resides at sector 15A in Noida close to Delhi border. Interstate co-ordination meetings are on to sort out the problem, claimed UP police.