Ernakulam: Prank calls a headache for emergency control room staff

KOCHI: Officials at the emergency control room , functioning in the Ernakulam collectorate building, have got an additional responsibility — to manage prank calls .


The control room, which was set up to address any distress situation, often gets calls during dinner time, mostly from children.

“Most people have saved the emergency number — 1077 — on their mobile phones. When parents give mobile phones to children, they accidentally press the emergency number option and the number will be dialled even if the phone is locked. We get around five such calls per day,” said an official with the control room.

Apart from this, migrant workers also dial the emergency number with demands to charge mobile phone. “Majority of the prank calls come in the evenings. When the control room receives prank calls repeatedly from the same number, officials call back to warn the person. Sometimes, mentally unstable people also call on the number,” said the official. “When we received a prank call, we complained to the police. It was found that the person who called was mentally unstable,” the official added.

The control room is also flooded with calls from panic-stricken people who dial the emergency number when heavy rain occurs, to enquire about water levels and know whether the rains would continue.

During heavy rains, the control room gets around 100 to 150 calls a day asking whether they should move to safer places. On a normal day, officials receive around 50 calls.

People use the emergency number also to know about the government aid for the flood-affected people. Officials divert such calls to respective departments. “The other day, one person had called up and asked for the route of chief minister, who was on a visit to the district to attend a private function,” said the official.

Sometimes, calls from neighbouring districts also reach the control room number due to technical issues.