The Centre's proposal to introduce a single emergency response system across the country has run into problems, with the Ministry of Health expressing concern over linking the ambulances services in states with the facility.
In the first phase, the project, E-9-1-1, aims to include cities with a population of over 5 lakh where all the emergency calls will be routed to the nearest public safety answering point automatically, indicating the location of the caller. However, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) pointed that since public health is a state subject, problems may be faced in routing the ambulance services to the proposed emergency response mechanism. Officials also added that an ambulance emergency number - 108 - is already functional in 19 states and the new helpline will result in a parallel system. |
