Shillong, May 7: Meghalaya is all geared up for the statewide civil defence mock drill aiming at educating citizens and staff about safety protocols during air raids.
The preparation assumed significance especially after the Indian armed forces launched operation Sindoor hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.
Addressing media persons, Joint Director Civil Defence and Homeguards MK Sangma said, “The mock drill will start at 4pm and at 6.30pm we will have the sounding of siren and blackout exercise.”
He said due to technical problems, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has requested to do the blackout shutdown only in Shillong, Jowai and Tura.
Sangma informed that the sounding of siren will be in all the districts, wherever it has been installed.
“We have 12 districts but then we cannot install in all districts as some are not categorized yet. Of the 12, 7 are categorized and 5 are not categorized yet for installation of sirens,” he said adding “We will sound the siren in two ways: one is the warning siren. There is the fluctuation sound for two minutes followed by blackout for two minutes and when the blackout is over, we will sound the siren again – one stretch sound for one minute, that means its all clear sound and that means you are safe to come out.”
On the role of stakeholders during the mock drill on air raids, Sangma said the Air force will intercept the air raid threats and inform the regional civil defence control centre (RCDCC) via hotline/radio communication. The RCDCC will alert the general public by sounding of siren and disseminate the information to district civil defence control centre (DCDCC) via hotline/radio communication. RCDCC will also inform the Army and selected VVIPs via line/radio communication.
The DCDCC will sound the sirens on received of information from RCDCC and also inform district administration and Warden service, which are in place in all localities of Shillong, Tura and Jowai.
He said the fire & emergency service will respond to fire incidents in all districts.
The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and Quick Response Team (QRT) of Civil Defence and Homeguards will also be activated for responding to incidents and evacuating from casualties from buildings. The deputy controllers is authorized to select the place and the type of incidents at their level.
Further, the joint director also announced that civil defence & homeguards will also conduct the second phase of mock drill to better prepare the citizens and the state machineries.
“In the second phase, we will be having a full-scale mock drill which will involve police, fire service, pwd, medical – all stakeholders will be involved,” he added.
“Today’s mock drill just to check our machineries. We are just checking. I know there will so many shortfall and this is the time to learn and we haven’t had a war for so many years. We forgot about all these things, we forgot about sirens, air raids, what actual happened in 1971. This is to test civil defence capabilities,” he asserted.
