Preparations for Chardham Yatra will be tested, NDMA and USDMA will conduct joint mock drill, many departments will be involved

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) are going to conduct a mock drill together on 24 April under the Chardham Yatra. Regarding which, on Wednesday, the officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) held a meeting of all the officials of Uttarakhand regarding the successful conduct of the mock drill.

In the orientation and coordination conference held on Wednesday, officials of all the districts related to the Chardham Yatra as well as officials of the concerned department participated. At the same time, in this meeting, NDMA Senior Consultant Major General Sudhir Bahl virtually informed everyone in detail about the organization and conduct of the mock drill. Major General Bahl said that disaster management is not the work of any one person or department. Rather, collective participation is necessary in it.

He told that the purpose of this mock drill is to bring all the stakeholders on one platform and test their capabilities and preparedness to face disasters. Also to increase them. He told that this mock drill will be conducted under IRS i.e. Incident Response System. IRS is a system that can be adopted to effectively deal with disasters. The duties and responsibilities of all officers and departments have been clearly determined in the IRS. NDMA officials said that officers of SDRF, NDRF, Police, Fire Department and other forces will play the role of observers in the mock drill. This mock drill will be conducted from the State Emergency Operations Center located at USDMA.

Disaster Management Department fully prepared for Chardham Yatra

Disaster Management Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman, while giving information after this meeting, said that Chardham Yatra is a very important event for our state. All the departments have made good preparations under the guidance and direction of Chief Minister Dhami. The Disaster Management Department is also fully on alert mode. On April 24, departmental preparations will be tested in facing disasters through mock drill by USDMA and NDMA. Where there is scope for doing something better. Work will be done in that direction. Where some deficiencies will be found. They will be rectified.

Mock drill will be done on these disaster incidents

How are the preparations of the government and administration for safe Chardham Yatra? These will be tested through mock drills of various disaster scenarios. The preparations of various line departments will be tested by creating scenarios like road accident, helicopter crash, earthquake, fire in hotel/dharmashala, stampede in Dham and narrow path, bad weather, flood, lightning, landslide, avalanche etc. In case of disaster, how the local administration coordinates with various central agencies like Air Force, Army, ITBP, NDRF, Paramilitary Force and how their resources are obtained will also be tested.

IRS is effective in dealing with disasters

The biggest utility of IRS during this mock drill is that under it, timely evaluation of any incident and exchange of information can be done at a fast pace. Apart from this, it is possible to send human and other resources to the site of incident in a systematic manner. In this, the responsibility and accountability have been clearly determined. Along with this, it is possible to make full use of the capabilities of the administration, relief and rescue teams, and other stakeholders. Under the IRS system, the Chief Secretary is designated at the state level, the District Officer at the district level, and the BDO at the block level.