1st inter-state mock exercise on disaster mgmt

1st inter-state mock exercise on disaster mgmt

Pune: The first inter-state joint mock exercise on earthquake and rescue started in the city on Friday. The Maharashtra State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), in association with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams of Maharashtra, Gujarat, as well as local fire brigade teams are participating. 

The opening ceremony was held at the Natsamrat Nilu Phule Auditorium in Sangvi. NDRF Director General Sanjay Kumar, Additional DGP (SRPF) Archana Tyagi and officials from other government departments were present. A field exercise will be held on Saturday. This two-day event will see participation from Maharashtra SDMA, Gujarat SDMA, Geological Survey of India and Pune district administration.

NDRF DG Sanjay Kumar said, “This exercise has been designed to share best practices and knowledge for mutual benefit of all, transfer of technology and joint ventures in the field of disaster management, multi-agency coordination on the face of trans disasters, sharing of best practices and lessons learnt from recent disasters. The exercise will help in augmentation of capacities, besides promoting coordination in disaster risk reduction (DRR).”

Commandant Anupam Srivastava of 5th Battalion NDRF, based at Sudumbare, near Talegaon, said, “Maharashtra and Gujarat are two well to do states with commendable industrial growth and quality of infrastructure. But they have huge industrial clusters and megacities with burgeoning populations, which forces people to live in vulnerable conditions. Both the states are prone to multiple hazards and have faced major disasters like Bhuj earthquake, Mumbai flooding, Malin landslide and building collapses in Mumbai to name a few. I have myself witnessed some of these disasters and the suffering it causes to common people.”

Speaking about the exercise, he added, “This inter-state joint mock exercise is a step in the direction of creating a regional response mechanism wherein states can utilise each other’s resources to respond to disasters.” “Faced with disaster situations, states can tap the resources in their neighbouring states, thereby saving precious time in summoning central resources which may come from far off states and also reduce communication channels in emergent times,” he added.

Additional DGP Archana Tyagi added, “We raised SDRF in 2016 and two units are posted in Dhule and Nagpur. The other regions, including Konkan, are being covered by NDRF. Recently, during the floods in Nagpur, our team was able to rescue people without calling the NDRF.” “The importance of choosing Pune as the city to conduct this joint mock exercise is because we all know that Pune is emerging as the next mega city with rapid urbanisation. This leads to people living in hazard-prone areas,” NDRF DG Sanjay Kumar said.

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