Dimapur, Feb. 15 (EMN): In an effort to mitigate any occurrence of national calamity, the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) under the Home department has announced to conduct mock exercises in all the districts of the state beginning from February 15.
According to a DIPR report, the mock exercise is being conducted simulating an earthquake scenario as a preparedness measure to respond to any emergency. It stated that the mock exercise would be carried out in a phase-wise manner beginning from February 15 in Dimapur district and concluded on April 20 in Zunheboto district.
In this regard, the public are requested not to panic at the sound of sirens and cooperate for smooth conduct of the exercise. It added that the mock exercise would be conducted by the concerned district disaster management authority along with all stakeholders such as SDRF (HG&CD), NDRF, and other line departments in the districts.
As part of the preparedness to mitigate occurrence of natural disaster, a mock exercise simulating an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 on Richter scale was conducted in Dimapur on February 15.
During the mock exercise, an earthquake-like situation was created at Dimapur Government College, presuming that the building partially collapsed with persons trapped at the top floor and college auditorium on fire due to the earthquake, a DIPR report stated.
It stated that a strike team headed by unit commander of NDRF involving Fire and Emergency Services conducted search and rescue operations where seriously injured and others in different medical conditions were shifted to the hospitals by the medical team.
It added that another mock drill was conducted at Pantaloon Shopping Mall with the involvement of a strike team headed by unit commander of SDRF, medical team and SDRF team.
Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner of Dimapur, Rajesh Soundararajan, has expressed satisfaction over the successful conduct of the mock exercise and lauded all the stakeholders for their active participation.
Reminding that Nagaland falls under the earthquake prone zone, Rajesh said that the exercise was conducted for observing the preparedness level and coordination of concerned stakeholders. He encouraged them to remain physically and mentally prepared at all times and work for improvement through the activities learnt during the mock exercise.
On rooms of improvement, the observers underscored the need for guides to lead the NDRF team (who might be new to the area) to the incident sites in order to save time and lives. The need and importance of human life detectors to trace the trapped persons were also pointed out.
The programme was organised by DDMA Dimapur in collaboration with NSDMA, NDRF and SDRF.
Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner and chairman of DDMA, Peren, Sentiwapang Aier, has informed all concerned heads of offices (HoO) that there would be a tabletop exercise at ADC office, Jalukie, on February 17 at 11 am. The meeting has been convened to discuss matters relating to the upcoming mock exercise scheduled on February 18. The DC has requested all the concerned to attend the meeting.
