Tripura to join countrywide civil defence mock drill on Wednesday

Along with the entire nation, Tripura and other Northeastern states will join in the nationwide civil defence mock drill on Wednesday.

The nationwide civil defence mock drills have been ordered by the central government to prepare states and UTs for “hostile attacks” amid “emerging threats”.

The mock exercise is being conducted at more than 244 locations across the country on the directive of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as part of heightened security measures following the April 22 terror attack at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 innocent civilians, mostly tourists, were killed.

As per the MHA directives, the civil defence mock drill would be conducted in 52 districts in eight Northeastern states.

Of the 52 districts, the exercise would be conducted in 15 districts in Assam, followed by 10 in Nagaland, 8 in Tripura, seven in Meghalaya, five each in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur and one each district in Mizoram and Sikkim.

In Tripura, state government's Revenue (including Relief, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management) Secretary Brijesh Pandey addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat in Agartala on Tuesday afternoon said that as per the directions of the MHA, a comprehensive civil defence mock drill would be conducted on Wednesday in all eight districts of the state.

The District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) and District Civil Defence Corps would coordinate the drill with active participation from various emergency and disaster response stakeholders, said Pandey.

He said that the objective of this mock drill is to assess the preparedness, efficacy, and coordination among civil defence units and allied agencies in responding to hostile attacks and emergencies. The drill would include testing the alert systems, evacuation procedures, public safety measures, and inter-agency coordination. The trained Civil Defence Volunteers are spread across all the eight districts.

The Civil Defence Volunteers act as frontrunner for crisis response with other key responders in the state. These volunteers would participate in the mock drill, said Pandey.

Pandey added "People are requested to be calm and adhere to safety protocols during the exercise. The public is informed that this is only a mock drill."

Speaking in the press meet, DM of West Tripura district, Dr Vishal Kumar said that the mock drill for West Tripura district would be held at Umakanta Academy ground from 3.30 PM to 6 PM on Wednesday  and siren would be played at 4 PM and 5.30 PM.

During the press meet, Director of Civil Defence, J V Doyati and state project director of Disaster Management, Sarat Kumar Das were also present.

In Manipur, officials said that in the mock exercises, police, Civil Defence, Fire Department, State and National Disaster Response Force, Health Department, Manipur State Power Distribution Company, educational institutions, state museum, and Information and Public Relations Directorate would be involved.

Preparations for the civil defence mock drill are underway in all the eight northeastern states.

In Meghalaya, Directorate of Civil Defence and Home Guards in an announcement said that the mock exercise on air raid precaution measures would be conducted on Wednesday afternoon from 4 p.m. onwards.

"The air raid siren would be sounded at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening and there would be a "black-out" exercise (power-shutdown) only for two minutes immediately after the siren is sounded," the announcement said.

The Civil Defence authority requested the people not to panic as this is being done as part of a mock exercise for air raids.