Shillong, March 10: As part of the Multi State Mock Exercise on earthquake scenario of Shillong Earthquake of 1897 of magnitude 8.7 on ritcher scale to test the preparedness of a city to face large-scale disaster and also the effectiveness of the Incident Response System (IRS), a Mega Mock Exercise organized today at Shillong by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), New Delhi in collaboration with the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), East Khasi Hills.
The Disaster sites selected for the Mock Exercise includes Nongrimmaw Bhagyakul as residential area under Laitumkhrah, MUDA Shopping Complex, Police Bazaar, Petrol Pump, Demseiniong, NEEPCO office and Shillong Public School.
During the exercise, the State and District Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) was fully activated for management and coordination with various stake holders for the flow of information with respect to activities associated with rescues and relief operations.
The exercise was carried out as per the Incident Response System (IRS), a mechanism which response through a well conceived team which consist of the Incident Commander and the teams from the Operation, Planning and Logistic sections under the control and command of the Responsible Officer (RO) who is the Deputy Commissioner of the District.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Guwahati and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were put into action for the search and rescue operations during the exercise which was also participated by the State Police, Home Guard and Civil Defense, Fire and Emergency Services, all line departments, various NGOs and community volunteers.
During the mock exercise observation were made with regard to the response time, communication flow, coordination and skills of these emergency support functionaries so as to identify the gaps and mistakes for rectification such loopholes in the future.
After the exercise, debriefing was carried out in the Auditorium of Yojana Bhavan, Shillong which was attended by Mr. J. K. Sinha, Member NDMA, Mr. P. B. O. Warjri, Additional Chief Secretary, Mr. P. K. Srivastava, Principal Secretary, and Smti L. Kharkongor, Commissioner and Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, Mr. Sanjay Goyal, Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Shivajee Singh, Senior Consultant, NDRF (NDMA), heads of participating departments and observers.(SP News)
