The Anti Corruption Bureau(ACB) control room receives a number of calls on a daily basis. But, mostly, the ACB officials receive prank, hoax and lewd calls isntead of genuine ones.
Around 81 per cent of the calls received by the ACB control room on the helpline number 1064 is fake, hoax, or lewd. The data provided by the ACB revealed that in 2018, the control room received 380 calls out of which, only 72 calls were genuine. Relevant cases were lodged in the matter.
The other 308 calls received by the control room were of young children accidentally dialing the number, people making an allegation regarding an officer and hanging up immediately, persons calling repeatedly and not speaking up. These calls also involved people who wanted to chat with the lady officer or wanted to abuse the office on duty.
DP Chudashma, Assistant Director of the ACB, said, "Most of the time we receive fake calls from children who call from their parent's phones without their knowledge. For the first time, we usually ignore it and hang up so that the line is not busy for other genuine complainants. But, when we start receiving several calls from the same number, we take action and alert the parents of the child concerned. There have been incidents when people have called to harass the ACB, by calling several times and not responding. We have taken action in that regard too and thus, fake calls have reduced to some extent."
If we look at the past five years data, it is seen that in 2017, a total of 301 calls were received out of which only 48 were genuine, while in 2016, 519 calls were attended by officials out of which only 80 were genuine.
Similarly, in 2015, the control room received a total of 533 calls out which only 88 were genuine and in 2014, 699 calls were reported out of which, only 56 were genuine.
"Even if we have the list of repeat callers, we cannot block their calls and our control room in-charge has to attend the calls anyhow and then cut them," Chudashma added.
AT YOUR SERVICE
An ACB official said that even if they have the list of repeat callers, they cannot block calls and the control room in-charge has to attend the calls anyhow and then, cut them if unnecessary
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