New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) To instil a sense of security among women, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is to launch the pan-India women safety number 112 under the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) and Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) here on Tuesday.
ERSS is a pan-India single number 112 based response system for persons in distress.
A citizen may use this number in case of emergency by just pressing the power button on a smartphone three times quickly to activate a panic call to Emergency Response Centre. ‘Use 112 India Mobile App’ is available free on Google Playstore and Apple store.
Under this system, all the states have to set up a dedicated Emergency Response Centre (ERC).
ERC will have a team of trained call-takers and dispatchers to handle emergency requests relating to assistance from Police, Fire and Rescue, health and other emergency services.
Police can view all events after an Emergency call is made at the ERC.
The ERCs are connected to District Command Centres (DCC) and the Emergency Response Vehicles, and assistance or response to victims is facilitated through them.
For women and children, 112 India App provides a special SHOUT feature which alerts registered volunteers in the vicinity of victim for immediate assistance.
The Centre is funding Rs 321.69 crore to the States and UTs for ERSS as part of Nirbhaya scheme project.
These initiatives will include 16 states, union territories and Mumbai city.
The 16 states and UTs are Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Jammu and Kashmir.
The service has already been launched in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
Mr Singh will also launch the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) which is meant for law enforcement agencies in the country.
This is an online module available to law enforcement agencies at all levels right from national, state, district and police station that allows State to undertake real-time monitoring and management for completion of investigation in rape cases in in just two months.
“It leverages the existing CCTNS data base, which covers nearly 15,000 police stations in the country and this online system would greatly strengthen the States' ability for analytics and prognosis for timely investigation and prosecution in rape cases,” the Home Ministry release said.
The Criminal Law Amendment in April 2018 prescribes stringent penal provisions including death penalty for rape of a girl below the age of 12 years. For swift administration of justice in such cases, the Act also inter-alia mandates completion of investigation and trials within two months.
On the occasion, the Home minister will also launch the ‘Safe City Implementation Monitoring (SCIM)’ portal for eight cities identified by the Centre.
The ‘Safe City projects’ will be covering the cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai at a cost of Rs 2,919 crore under the Nirbhaya fund.
Safe City projects involve creation of on-ground assets, resources and behaviour change programmes for safety of women. The projects will supplement existing assets and meet citizen demands for safe eco-system for women in these cities.
Under this programme, identification of crime hot-spots in each city, saturating such hot-spots with increased CCTV surveillance, Automated Number Plate Reading (ANPR) and drone-based surveillance also being deployed in few cities as per requirement are among the important features.
During the event, Mr Singh will also make an announcement of a special project under Nirbhaya Fund for strengthening DNA analysis capacities in the State Forensic Science Laboratories at Chennai, Madurai, Lucknow, Agra, Kolkata and Mumbai.
UNI AKS SD 1926