Amarnath Yatra: NDMA conducts mock exercises to improve preparedness
The annual Amarnath Yatra to the cave shrine in south Kashmir will begin from June 29 and continue till Aug 7.
Simultaneous exercises have been conducted at critical areas along the Baltal and the Pahalgam-Chandanwari routes by NDMA experts Gen. V.K. Datta (Retd.) and Maj. Gen. (Dr.) V.K. Naik (Retd.).
They trained the participants on key aspects of disaster management such as the formation of Incident Response Teams, coordination among various participating agencies, evacuation, medical preparedness and trauma counselling.
The exercises began with Co-ordination Conferences on Day 1 (June 21) followed by Table-top Exercises on Day 2 (June 22).
Senior officials from all stakeholder departments such as the Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the Rashtriya Rifles, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Army, police, health, Civil Defense, transport, fire and other emergency services attended these preparatory meetings and participated in the mock exercises.
A debriefing exercise was conducted afterwards wherein the participants discussed the shortcomings and ways to address them.
NDMA has so far conducted more than 550 mock exercises across the country for various disaster situations with a State-level mock exercise on earthquake preparedness in Delhi on June 30, 2017 next on the list.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.