I am among the people who are worst with anything and everything that involves digits. From solving a math problem to remembering birthdays and phone numbers, everything is a task for me. And just like every other person belonging to the “numbers suck” gang, I have all the emergency contacts saved on the phone right from the ambulance to fire station and police. (including my own phone number)
So, for people like me, here’s good news. You no more need to struggle to learn all the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) numbers by heart! As you can now dial ‘112’ in case of an emergency.
While we have different numbers for different emergency services like 100 for police, 101 for fire, 108 for health and 1090 for women helpline, you can now avail all these emergency services by dialing only one number ‘112’ that will assure to make the services more prompt and apt.
The service will kick off in only some states and UTs initially from February 19. The single emergency number will operate in the following states: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The service is already in action in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
In order to access the all-in-one emergency services, a person can directly dial ‘112’ through phone or press the power button three times on a smartphone. In a normal phone, long press ”5 or ”9” key on the phone will activate the emergency panic call, a home ministry official said, reports NDTV. You can also download the ‘112’ app available on Google play store and Apple store for smartphones.
The US too has a single emergency number helpline ‘911’ which has proved to be a boon for the country. We hope that all the states in India soon adopt the all-in-one helpline to make emergency services more prompt and smooth.