Rescue 1122 will initiate legal action against prank callers: DG
ISLAMABAD: The Rescue 1122 has decided on Wednesday to took necessary legal action against the fake callers which includes imprisonment for six months or with fine of rupees 50,000/- or both. This decision came in a meeting of the Provincial Monitoring Cell of the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) was held under the chairmanship of the Director General, Dr. Rizwan Naseer regarding the problems being faced with regards to receiving of calls on emergency number 1122.
All the heads of wings expressed serious concern that over 97% were unwanted calls, which keep the emergency number busy unnecessarily thereby sometimes depriving the emergency victims from provision of timely emergency care.
The seriousness of the issue can be well judged by the fact that out of 26.92 million calls only 2.35% were genuine emergency calls since its inception in October, 2004. Out of these 9514316 calls were received in Lahore, 2647389 in Faisalabad, 1453677 in Rawalpindi, 2029705 in Multan, 1164492 in Bahawalpur, 2138343 in Rahim Yar Khan, 1283596 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 219048 in Murree, 1588060 in Sialkot, 1521870 in Gujranwala, 1262194 in Sargodha, 857376 in Sahiwal, 52372 in Jhang, 136808 in Toba Tek Singh, 50141 in Muzafargarh, 86483 in Rajanpur, 79778 in Mianwali, 52911 in Pakpattan, 131824 in Kasur, 178758 in Gujrat, 38063 in Bahawalnagar, 34843 in Jehlum, 44244 in Attock, 52673 in Khanewal, 9489 in Vehari, 38112 in Chakwal, 44167 in Okara, 8546 in Hafizabad, 132124 in Sheikhupura, 32749 in Lodhran, 4534 in Nankana Sahib, 11236 in Khushab, 6025 in Mandi Baha-ud-din, 6510 in Narowal, 9991 in Layyah and 2761 in Bhakkar.
As a result of the effective monitoring and call recording software developed by the Service, the number of fake emergency responses has been restricted to 2642 out of 54108 fake calls received. These 26291087 non emergency calls include 90.88% irrelevant/obnoxious calls, 7.7% information seeking calls, 1.19% wrong calls and 2.06% fake calls.
The analysis of calls from major cities of Punjab shows that these irrelevant/obnoxious calls included 43.98% calls from girls, 37.63% from boys, 7.28% from kids, 1.87% musical calls, 3.48% abusing calls, 1.39% wrong calls and 4.37% were irrelevant calls. These major cities include Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faislabad, Sargodha, Multan, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, D.G Khan, Sialkot, Rahim Yar Khan, Murree and Sahiwal.
The repeated irrelevant / obnoxious callers are blocked so that the emergency callers do not find the number busy and can be provided timely help in case of any emergency. However, sudden increase in number sometimes results in failure of the availability of emergency number which is very unfortunate. There are some regular pranksters who made large number of calls per day just for sake of fun.
The Service has tried several solutions which included blocking of such unwanted callers, warnings over phone and sensitizing the caller about the significance & importance of emergency number. As a result of this sensitizing campaign, a few regular pranksters have stopped dialing Emergency Number 1122. However, the overall numbers still continues to increase therefore, the Service has been compelled to take necessary legal action which includes imprisonment for six months or with fine of rupees 50,000/- or both.
Dr. Rizwan Naseer said that it is the duty and moral responsibility of every citizen to respect the emergency number 1122. He said that we would still prefer that the citizens understand the significance and importance of emergency number and not try to deprive the emergency victims of their right to be provided timely rescue and emergency medical treatment so that we do not have to initiate criminal proceedings against such obnoxious callers.-SANA
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