Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Dial 100 integrated emergency response system (ERS) of police launched across the state on November 1, 2015 for 24X7 has failed to act fast when called for help by people. The project cost was more than Rs 632 crore. Even the project management advisor hired at Rs 72 lakh annually failed in certain duties. This has found mention by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a report on the system in Madhya Pradesh for the year that ended on March 31, 2020.
The report, tabled in the assembly on Friday, states that implementation of the project- Dial 100 integrated emergency response system- was audited in eight districts from Nov 2015 to March 2020. Once implemented, the first response vehicle was supposed to reach the spot in urban areas within 5 minutes and in rural areas within 30 minutes. However, the average response time in urban area was found to be 24 minutes and in rural area 56 minutes. "We noticed that there was delay in response even in heinous crime cases like rape, attempt to rape, kidnapping, domestic violence etc. There was no noticeable improvement in response time in emergency situation during 2016-19. This delay made futile the objective of the system", states the report. The report further states, "The department spent an average of Rs 104 crore annually to run the revived system. We found that quality of created data for effective monitoring was not appropriate despite integrated system. Out of every 100 calls only 20 were categorised as meant for taking action and valid data was available only for two of the 20 calls."
The report finds several other faults like want of transparency in tenders, no disclosure of clash of interest by the project advisor, changes in norm for selection of the advisor in the last stage etc. The report suggested a comprehensive review of all the flaws in the system so that the ERS could meet its objective.
