Shillong(Meghalaya), Feb 18: Meghalaya Chief Secretary, Ms. R V Suchiang today inaugurated the Nationwide Emergency Response System (NERS) / Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) or Dial ‘112’, at Sadar Police Station Complex, here. The programme was also attended by Ms. I. Nongrang, Special Director General of Police, Meghalaya, Cyril V D Diengdoh, Secretary Home (Police) among others.
It may be mentioned that the Nationwide Emergency Response System (NERS) / Emergency Response Support System (ERSS)/ Dial 112 is the vision of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India, to launch a nationwide, unified emergency response system with a single emergency number ‘112’, for all kinds of emergencies and distress signals from citizens in the form of voice call, SMS, e-mail, panic SOS request, web request, etc. All these distress signals are sent to the common number 112, the automated facility envisaged to-be set up for this purpose in the capital cities of all States and Union Territories will handle all distress signals to 112 and provide assistance available to the people in distress within the best possible time. Henceforth, all the existing emergency numbers like 100 (police), 101 (Fire and Rescue) and 108 (ambulance), 181 (Women and Child Care) etc, will be integrated to unified number ‘112’.
The implementation of Nationwide Emergency Response System involves setting up of three major components: Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) implementation at the State/UT capital, District Coordination Centre (DCC) extensions with associated Emergency Response Units (vehicles fitted with mobile data terminals) and the National Support Services (NSS) implementation at the national capital.
The features of the Emergency Response Vehicles Mounted with Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) include: Android App which runs on a tablet device (GPS enabled) and communicates with PSAP Dispatchers and Web Dispatch Terminals over GPRS, an integrated Google Map that can display the needy person’s location/ trace and other vehicle location, uploads the device’s real-time location information to PSAP at regular intervals, PSAP Dispatchers/Web Dispatch Terminals can send case data to the vehicle on its MDT and the vehicle staff shall initiate the response by accepting the case on the MDT, sends delivery acknowledgement/case status changes to PSAP Dispatchers/WDT and capable of displaying all case related information – i.e. case id, case type, user number, user name, user address etc, and current location on the screen in a simple and readable format.
In Meghalaya the Home department had procured 8 Maruti Ecco Vans and the Government had allowed the department to requisition 12 light vehicles to begin with the NERS project, all these vehicles are fitted with the MDTs, First Aid Boxes and Half kg Fire Extinguishers. These Vehicles are distributed throughout the State of Meghalaya as follows: East Khasi Hills – 4, West Khasi Hills – 1, Ri Bhoi – 2, East Jaintia Hills – 1, West Jaintia Hills – 2, Eastern West Khasi Hills – 1, South West Khasi Hills – 1, North Garo Hills – 1, East Garo Hills – 2, West Garo Hills – 3, South West Garo Hills – 1 and South Garo Hills – 1.
Apart from these vehicles, the Highway Patrol Vehicles will also be mounted with MDTs and will function as Emergency Response Vehicles and anybody facing problems on the Highway can call 112 now, at present there are 13 Highway Patrol Vehicles in the state.
