By Ankur Vadhera ,Chandigarh, November 09:A Capacity Development Programme was conducted from 7-9thNov’12 in Chandigarh UT, to assess and evaluate the awareness and preparedness of Chandigarh Administration in the event of an Earthquake. The Training programme was conducted by Sh. J.K.Sinha,Hon’ble Member of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and other technical experts from the NDMA. The Chandigarh Administration has appointed the Deputy Commissioner, Sh. Mohammed Shayin, IAS, as the Nodal Officer for Disaster Management.
The first day of the training program dealt upon Incident Response System(IRS) by Sh. J.K.Sinha, followed by a group exercise on earthquake response, conducted by IRS Expert Mr. B.B.Gadnayak from NDMA.
The second day of the training programme included Table Top Exercise conducted by Brig.Khanna, Mock Drill Expert from NDMA. The District Disaster Management Plan of Chandigarh Administration was presented by Sh. Kashish Mittal, SDM (East) which was followed by presentation on Standard Operating Procedures of all Line Departments in the event of disaster by respective Nodal Officers.The objective was to understand the resources available at hand and enhance coordination between various departments.
The Programme was concluded with a Mock Exercise on Relief & Rescue operation in the event of an Earthquake, at sector 17, UT Chandigarh, with the assistance of Brig. Khanna and a specialist team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). In addition to the line departments of the Chandigarh Administration, active participation of teams from Civil Defence, Home Guard and Army was also witnessed. Around 500 school children also participated actively in the exercise.
Simultaneously, on 6th& 7thNov’12 a Rapid Visual Screening Training was also conducted by experts from IIT Bombay and Madras, which involved training of engineers from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. A field survey was also conducted to provide hands on training to the engineers to assess the strength of critical infrastructure present in Chandigarh.