Guwahati: Partha Sarathi Mahanta, the joint commissioner of the Guwahati police, released two helplines for the public for any kind of assistance on Saturday.
While addressing the media at a gathering, JCP Mahanta stated that there has been a troubling increase in suicide cases in the city. In that regard, the Guwahati police released two helpline numbers, he said.
“We had earlier made available a helpline number on which we have received countless calls asking for our assistance,” Mahanta said.
The joint police commissioner noted that since 2013, the number of suicides in Guwahati had nearly doubled.
According to him, there were 222 suicide instances reported in 2013, but only 220 in 2014. The number of cases increased to 241 in 2015, but then dropped to 227 in 2016.
The number of suicide cases then increased once more, reaching 289 in 2017 and 287 in 2018, Mahanta said.
JCP Mahanta further informed that suicide cases decreased to 254 in 2019 and slightly increased to 277 in 2020.
However, there were 441 documented suicide cases in 2021, nearly twice as many as in previous years, he added.
The Guwahati joint commissioner of police said that two numbers – 6026900574 and 6026900552 – will be available for the people to contact in case of any kind of problems.
He added that anybody might call the numbers or send messages via WhatsApp, and that the callers’ names would always be kept secret.