UP 100 averted 858 suicides in 2017, saved 134 accident victims a day

Lucknow: The ambitious Uttar Pradesh Police emergency system, UP 100, saved 858 lives by timely intervention in suicide attempts across the state in the past one year, officials said on Wednesday, adding that 134 people were saved daily in road accidents.

The service received 15,954 distress calls of suicides being committed or in progress and the fast response ensured that the police reached the crime scene, broke open a bolted door and barged in to save a life, officials said on the first foundation day of the service.

The police in Ghaziabad received the first prize for the fastest response to a call by reaching the crime scene in 14.59 minutes, said Additional Director General (ADG) UP 100, Aditya Mishra at a press conference.

Mishra said that the second slot was won by Muzaffarnagar (16.06 minutes) and third by the police in Noida which took 16.06 minutes.

Mishra also said that the three districts excelled in a system where the average response time in the last one year has been 15.23 minutes. "We are trying to improve it further across the board and bring it down to 15 minutes."

A fleet of 1,500 two-wheelers would soon be assimilated in the system, he added.

Superintendent of Police for UP 100, Mohammad Imran, said they had "challenged themselves by setting a target of picking 98 per cent calls within five seconds", adding that "the system has consistently exceeded that benchmark and currently 99.75 per cent calls received are answered within five seconds".

Raghvendra Dwivedi, senior radio officer, said that lives of as many as 134 persons were being saved daily due to timely intervention to UP 100 in incidents of road accidents.

Also read: 40 more die in Uttar Pradesh cold wave in past 24 hours

With UP 100 having more than 3,000 four wheelers, double the number of ambulances (1500) under 108, the service was turning out to be a big boon for the injured during the critical period of post-accidents.

Averaging 1.25 lakh calls a day, the system has so far witnessed direct police intervention in 47,39,795 cases emerging out of calls made to it. Of these, the top cases reported were of disputes with neighbours, disputes over property, domestic violence, accidents and brawls, officials said.

A staggering 338,028 calls have been made by the elderly on UP 100 in the past one year for help, while 363,912 cases of domestic violence have been reported by women and a significant 54,355 calls were by children.

UP 100 has also received 7,566 distress calls from men reporting beating from wife and 234 kids have also called for help after being thrashed by parents and complaining of not being allowed to study.

The Rs 2,300 crore ambitious project was launched in 2015 and kickstarted on January 10, 2017 amid great hype.

A pet project of the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, it is being groomed well in the present BJP dispensation as well apparently due to its result yielding record and sources say the government is keen to both "patronize and promote" it for its own image building.

Officials said that in a few months from now, two mirror centres for emergencies and calamities, in case of disruption of the call centre and servers housed at the Dial 100 headquarter here, would be established -- most likely in Allahabad, Ghaziabad or Noida.

The place and the utility of such places for mirror centres is under consideration of the state government, ADG Aditya Mishra said.

Lucknow, Allahabad and Kanpur were the top three districts with actionable calls made to UP 100 and the bottom three districts were Baghpat, Balrampur and Shrawasti.

UP 100, it was informed, also took feedback from the public about its services and 78 per cent gave them a thumbs up and 21 per cent said they were not satisfied.

IANS