Kerala rights panel asks police to probe as emergency response number logs 2.5 mn fake calls

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 30 (IANS) The 108 Emergency Response Service in Kerala is a free option for integrated medical, police, and fire emergency services, but the key resource is bogged down as it was found out that from January 2020 to October 2023, of the 4.5 million calls that it received, 2.5 million calls were 'fake' ones.

Disturbed by the senseless acts of those who keep calling up 108, the officials manning the call centre brought this to the attention of the authorities and based on this, the Kerala State Rights Commission directed the state police chief to look into this and submit a report in three weeks.

Among the numerous fake calls, one drew an ambulance to the spot, but its staff were startled to find that the caller only wanted to transport a tortoise.

Among other calls were from kids who while playing with a locked mobile phone of their parents, as 108 can be called from a locked mobile.

Then there are calls that comes from people in an inebriated state.

Due to a large volume of such calls, the call centre officials wanted to see that their precious time is not lost going for such fake emergencies.