The Mumbai police will be doubling the strength of staff who attend the ‘1930’ cyber crime helpline number in the next week, officials said on Tuesday. The number of workers will be increased to 22 within the next 10 days from the current 11 who work in two shifts.
The Indian Express reported on Monday that due to a shortage of hands at the national cyber crime helpline desk, most people in the city seeking assistance through the helpline numbers were not able to get the service.
The Crime Branch that oversees the helpline number had earlier admitted that they were able to cater to only one in four calls.
“We have given a proposal to increase the number of people to take the calls. Each person needs a computer, telephone line, and printer and we have sought more computers,” said an IPS officer.
The officer added that as it normally takes nearly 20 minutes on one call the new development will improve the percentage of people who get the assistance.
There have been several complaints from the victims of cybercrime that they have not been able to get through the country-wide helpline number – 1930. When Indian Express tried calling on the number 15 times between August, September and October, it got through only twice.
Mumbai, considered the financial capital of the country, is plagued by cyber crimes with victims getting duped of lakhs of rupees on a daily basis to fraudsters calling from various parts of the state.
Most Read
Angelo Mathews timed out; why was Sourav Ganguly not timed out even when he came out to bat once after 6 minutes?
Karisma Kapoor recalls Aamir Khan’s perfectionism during Andaz Apna Apna shoot: ‘He was placing the salt and pepper and fixing the plate’
Ironically, the pilot project of the dedicated national cyber helpline number 1930, developed by the ICCC (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre), was carried out in Mumbai in June 2022. After its success, the project was replicated in other parts of the country.
Apart from sparse manpower, the police had said that while the Mumbai helpline desk was to receive calls only from Mumbai, it was flooded with calls from Navi Mumbai, Thane, Virar, and nearby places due to a technical glitch.
As per the data from the Mumbai Police, of the 8,486 calls they received in September, around 2,900 calls came from outside Mumbai. The officer said that they will soon be resolving the issue so that these calls would not flood the helpline.