Mock Drill
B.K. Khanna, Senior Specialist, National Disaster Management Authority, addressing a meeting at the Collectorate on Tuesday. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will soon conduct mock drills in Chennai on management of flood and fire, said Brigadier B.K. Khanna, Senior Specialist of NDMA, here on Tuesday.The authority would also come out with guidelines on management of biological disasters and chemical terrorism, Brigadier Khanna told newspersons. He participated in a meeting convened to check the preparedness of the official machinery for a mock drill on disasters in hazardous industries on July 23 here. Dr. Rakesh Dubey, Director of the Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal, accompanied him. Mr. Khanna said the mock drills on flood management would be held in Chennai in September or October while the drills on fire management by this year-end or in January 2009. He said NDMA had already issued guidelines on management plans for disasters relating to chemical and industries, earthquake, flood and cyclone. They were available on the website ndma.gov.in
NDMA that came into being on December 23, 2005, by an Act of Parliament had already conducted 26 mock drills at various places in the State and Puducherry. Mr. Khanna said the objective of such drills was to have a culture of preparedness on the part of the official machinery and to create awareness among the community. Awareness was paramount because “it is the community that reacts to disasters first before the official machinery gets into action”.
NDMA in association with the German Government would soon come out with an awareness generation programme, he said. The preparedness would include capacity building in hospitals and creating bed capacity/separate wards for disaster victims and also capacity building in ambulances in terms of life saving gadgets and drugs besides educating staff on transportation of victims. The focus would be on maintaining, running and sustaining relief camps with medicines and food for the victims thus indigenising the guidelines practised in the United States and developed countries.
On the guidelines for regions vulnerable to seismic activity, Mr. Khanna said the Governments had already been sensitised to encouraging only earthquake-resistant structures.Lifeline buildings such as Collectors’ office, schools and hospitals were coming up with such structures while the existing ones were being retrofitted with earthquake resistant technology. Disaster Management Act had fixed the responsibility on contractors building structures without such technology and authorities granting No Objection Certificate or approval for the same.The State Governments would be requested to monitor future constructions, he added.The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in co-ordination with the district administrations and various departments concerned would be conducting a mock drill on industrial disaster management in hazardous industries on July 23 at the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant of Bharat Petroleum Corporation at Peelamedu, according to Dr.B.K. Khanna, Senior Specialist of NDMA and Dr.Rakesh Dubey, Director of Disaster Management Institute at Bhopal.
Earlier, District Revenue Officer, S. Prabhkaran; Chief Inspector of Factories, S. Elangovan and Joint Chief Inspector of Factories, S. Raghunathan; officials from the health department, fire and rescue services department, police, local bodies and heads of nearly 20 departments attended a meeting. A gas leak situation would be handled during the mock drill. The exercise included creation of capacity i.e., beds, wards, medicines at hospitals and facilities in ambulances.Running of relief camps was also a part of the plan. The public reacts to a disaster before the official machinery gets into action. The appeal of NDMA would be to sensitise and enlighten the community.
The public should keep two bags ready i.e., one bag containing food items, dry ration, torch light, candles and match box etc for sustaining themselves while the other bag should contain all certificates and documents. This would enable the public to switch to safety instantly in the event of a disaster. The mock drill on July 23 would have observers from the other districts.
