1532 Illegal mining complaints received on Hoshiyar Singh Helpline

140 FIR registered on Gudiya Helpline complaints

Shimla: Hoshiyar Singh Helpline seems getting desired results as citizens have registered 1532 complaints of illegal mining in the state.

Hoshiyar Singh Helpline (1090), which was introduced to crack down on the activities of drug, forests and mining mafias, the state police have received 2156 complaints and registered 20 FIR till now.

As per information provided by the State Police, in Hoshiyar Singh Helpline, complaints of illegal Mining were highest as the police have received 1532 complaints from across the state. The police have received 185 complaints of illegal activities in the forest 185 and 45 complaints of encroachment. The State police have also received 160 complaints under NDPS.  

Chief Minister’s office is also directly monitoring the complaints received on the Hoshiyar Singh Helpline, making it more effective and useful.

In Gudiya Helpline (1515), the state police have received 2934 complaints, out of which 63 cases are pending and FIR was registered in 140 cases. Gudiya Helpline was introduced to control crime against women and so far, helpline (1515) has proved beneficial for women to lodge immediate complaint.   

The State government has also initiated a ‘Shakti App’ for the protection of women, which allow any women at the time of any trouble to seek immediate help from the police. However, ‘Shakti Button’ has proved no good for the police as bogus complaints are only wasting valuable time of the police. As per the information provided by the Police total 3382 complaint were received through the Shakti button and only 1 FIR was registered.

Features like hard shake and phone drop-down were only contributing of unintentional complaints with the department and after a few months of operation features like hard shake and phone drops down were disabled from the App. Shakti App works as if anyone presses the button, it was designed to send the message automatically on the number of registered family members or friend and based on the location – the system automatically send message to the nearby police station as well. However, it was assessed that features like hard shake and phone drop-down were sending frequent messages of distress and police had to disabled these features from the App.

Another helpline for the women namely ‘Women Helpline 1091’ were also used by the women as the state police have received 130 complaint on the Helpline. Based on these complaints 15 FIR was also registered. Officer responsible for handling women helpline revealed that in many cases helpline numbers are being misused as well. He stated that some time Police received the request of even recharging a mobile phone.  

Besides Hoshiyar Singh, Gudiya and Women Helpline numbers, anyone can report on 9459100100 number. A mere SMS or Whatsapp message can inform police about any incident or illegal activities.

To further strengthen the immediate complaints modules, the administration is working on an Emergency Response Support System (112 Helpline number). The state of Himachal Pradesh has also got distinction of becoming a 1^st state in the country for implementing it. Anyone can use 112 Helpline for all sort of complaints. It’s also learned that it’s being worked out to consolidate the helpline service on 112 as a Universal Emergency Number in India.

Picture Credit: HP BJP