Ranchi, May 12: If you land in trouble in the middle of the night, God forbid, don?t try calling up the emergency phone numbers. Instead, say a little prayer.

The emergency numbers ? 100 (police control room), 101 (ambulance) and 102 (fire brigade) ? do not function in the city. While one hears a false ring if he dials 100 and 101, an endless hum is all that he will get if he dials 102.

But those who are supposed to look into the maintenance of the lines are least bothered. ?People used to misuse telephone number 100. When the number was working, I used to receive more than 50 crank calls every day. Sometimes, children used to ring up for fun,? said a police officer at the police control room. He said a victim or an informant should dial 2316855 to call up directly to the police control room.

A fireman, at the Doranda fire station, said: ?I am least interested in the restoration of the line. It was a nuisance. I used to receive several hoax calls. Barring a few, most people misused the number.?

An ambulance driver at the Sadar hospital said the defect in the line was a blessing in disguise for them. ?We are least interested in the restoration of the number. In case the number gets activated, we will have to face a lot of problem,? he added matter-of-factly.

The telephone department, however, held the concerned departments responsible. Officials said the department was unable to initiate any action for the restoration of the numbers as the police, fire brigade and the health department have not shown any interest in it. ?How can we take steps without any complaint from the concerned departments?? an official said.

The general manager of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) S.N. Singh said the problem was due to lack of sufficient number of channels. ?Presently, the number of channels are not enough. All emergency numbers will function after the number of channels are increased,? he added. No deadline was given.

Director-general of fire brigade R.R. Prasad, on the other hand, said he had no information about the problem. ?This is the first time I have come to know about the problem. I will look into it,? he added. Zonal IG P.S. Natrajan said the problem will be solved as soon as a well-equipped control room starts functioning ? no deadline for that again.