Emergency Phone Alert Tests Cause Panic Among City Dwellers

HYDERABAD: Mobile phone alerts in multiple languages, sent by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as part of a nationwide testing exercise, left city dwellers anxious, suspicious of them being malware attacks or phone-hacking attempts.

N. Prakash Reddy, director, directorate of environmental vigilance and disaster management (EV&DM), confirmed that the messages were part of an NDMA exercise, for Android phones. “When there is a natural disaster or an attack-like situation, these alert messages are sent to the phones,” he said.

Uma Paranda, who works with an MNC, said she and her colleagues were confused as all their mobile phones started buzzing with the alerts, starting from 10 am.

“Messages state clearly to ignore them and that it is for the demo purpose. But still, people were in panic, not because there will be disaster, but assuming this must be a mischief played by some fraudster,” she said.

Preetam Kumar Chaudhary, a businessman, said: “The messages came in Telugu and English, appearing on screen with a loud buzz. Even though the message was clear, we thought for an instant that this must be some malware corrupting our phones.”

Authorities said that the technology will help save human lives. “Now, the DRF teams, for instance during rain monitoring at the control room, can alert residents to be better prepared,” Prakash Reddy said.