Bihar Cabinet meeting: Toll free 112 emergency services in rural areas too

The Nitish Kumar cabinet in Bihar on Friday approved a ₹766.71-crore plan to expand the service network of the emergency response support system (ERSS), being operated by dialling 112, to rural areas under phase two of the project.

This was among 35 proposals approved at the cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar after deliberations with his cabinet colleagues.

Briefing media persons after the meeting, S Siddharth, additional chief secretary (cabinet), said the state cabinet has decided to expand the operation of 112 services in rural areas after successful operations in urban areas in the first phase. “Apart from providing police support in case of emergency, the updated ERSS will also include the facility of ambulance and fire services. A government of India enterprise, Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAT), has been nominated as total service provider for arranging training and other infrastructure for execution of the project,” said Siddharth.

The chief minister had, in July last year, launched the first phase of the ERSS, being run through toll free 112 number, for urban areas at the control and command centre of Bihar Police Radio campus. The CM had also flagged off around 400 ERSS vehicles equipped with mobile data terminals to facilitate emergency services to the people in need in city areas. One police officer and three-four armed personnel were deputed on the vehicles.

Linking police stations and gram panchayat bhawans

In another important decision, the cabinet gave its nod to the information technology department’s proposal for connecting all police stations and gram panchayat bhawans with Bihar State Wide Area Network (BSWAN 3.0) to provide high-speed intranet connectivity with the state headquarter. A sum of ₹564.02 crore has been sanctioned to build supporting infrastructure to run the network.

Dedicated agriculture feeder across rural areas

The energy department’s plan of building dedicated agriculture feeder across rural areas of the state under phase two of the Mukhyamantri Krishi Vidyut Sambhandh Yojna also received the cabinet’s go ahead. The scheme has been launched as part of the recently unveiled fourth agricultural road map, under which farmers would get free power connection. They will, however, be billed for the power consumption. The energy department will spend ₹2190.75 crore on building the power supply network.

The cabinet also approved rules for appointment of about 3,500 teachers in the schools run by the SC, ST and EBC welfare department across the state. Siddharth said rules for recruitment of teachers are almost similar to that of the education department.