Kanpur FIR-filing helpline: The latest head turner for entire UP

By Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo

NEW DELHI: The newly-launched helpline of Kanpur police (ek number bharose ka) that helps public to register their complaints anytime, anywhere through calls or SMS, has witnessed an overwhelming response, with an average 400 complaints being received on a daily basis through this mechanism.

The project, launched on April 16,2015, is now set to be a trend in Uttar Pradesh as talks are on to deploy it in the entire state.

The new system, entailing an investment of about Rs 10 lakhs, claims to reduce or practically obliterates the human discretion level at the Public-Police interface in the nine districts of Kanpur zone (Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya, Etawah, Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Jalaun, Jhansi and Lalitpur).

The sound file of complainant's voice is sent to the mobile app of Thanas within five minutes and a strong monitoring team ensures the compliance.

Complainants can get the proof of acceptance or registration of the complaint both in the form of voice file and messages.

“During my career especially as SSP Lucknow, I felt that people have to wait for hours at Thanas and other offices to give their application. They have to get their application typed, move from their homes to different offices while spending money on travelling. And after that they are not sure whether their grievances will be heard or not. And more so, what action was taken on that application, a complainant had to again run to different offices without any results,” said Ashutosh Pandey, Kanpur Inspector General.

There is one number (0512 231 0512) for all the nine districts of Kanpur Zone, covering an estimated population of around two crore.

It can take 30 calls at a time and the grievances are redressed within 24 hours preferably the same day. There is a strong team to monitor the quality of redressal of grievances.

“The complainant also gets the report of action taken. The complaint is closed only after the satisfaction of the complainant. If the complaint is not redressed within 24 hours, it automatically moves to the next higher level of Circle Officer,” Pandey said.

“Another team is there to audit the satisfaction level of complainants and get their suggestions for improvement of the system. Concerned officers' annual performance appraisal is also linked with this system. Every ten days the performance is evaluated at the district level. Different types of insights, charts and graphs help in mapping the projection and prediction of complaints,” he added.