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NEW DELHI: Amid indications of an imminent confrontation with Pakistan, home ministry on Monday asked all states and UTs to conduct drills across 244 categorised civil defence districts, including those identified as vulnerable to various threats, on Wednesday.
The purpose of the exercise, which is bound to bring back memories of full-scale wars – with China in 1962 and Pakistan in ’65 and ’71 – is to test and enhance the preparedness of the civil defence machinery against any attack.
No exercise of this scale was undertaken even during Operation Vijay launched to successfully evict Pakistani intruders in Kargil in 1999 or, after that, in 2001 when a war with Pakistan had looked imminent after India massed its troops along the border in the aftermath of a terror attack on Parliament.
The communication to conduct the drills, which will simulate a warlike scenario, was sent to state chief secretaries and UT administrators by the directorate general, fire services, civil defence and home guards – which comes under home ministry – on a day of intense deliberations by PM Narendra Modi with NSA Ajit Doval and the home and defence secretaries.
Drill to train civilians, test evacuation preparedness
Wednesday’s drills involve operationalisation of air raid warning sirens to test their effectiveness and activation of hotline or radio communication links with IAF. The implementation of blackout measures will be tested and the option of early camouflaging of vital plants and installations evaluated.
The exercise seeks to test the functionality of control rooms and shadow control rooms and verify the activation and response of civil defence services, including warden services, firefighting, rescue operations and depot management.
The primary objective of the drill will be training of civilians, students & volunteers in civil defence aspects to protect themselves from hostile situations; and to evaluate preparedness of evacuation plans and rehearse their execution.
An earlier communication sent to states May 2 had sought strengthening of civil defence preparedness in “vulnerable areas”, while recalling PM’s address at the ‘chintan shivir’ – attended by all state home ministers – held on Oct 27-28, 2024 in Haryana – emphasising importance of civil defence preparedness, especially in border and coastal areas. It had stressed on all aspects of preparedness as listed above, apart from cleaning of bunkers and trenches in the border areas.
Monday’s communication is a follow up and states that the home ministry “has decided to organise civil defence exercise and rehearsal” right down to the village level.
“In civil defence exercise, active participation of district controller, district authorities, civil defence wardens/volunteers, home guards (active/reserve volunteers), NCC, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, National Service Scheme and college/school students is envisaged,” the MHA letter stated, adding that the aim of the exercise is to “assess operational efficacy & operational coordination of civil defence measures”.
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