Civil defence mock drill: Union home secretary to review preparedness for 'complex geopolitical threat' today

The Union home ministry will review states' preparedness for the rare civil defence mock drill on Wednesday. The civil defence mock drill will be conducted in 244 districts across the country.

 

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan will review the preparations with chief secretaries and heads of civil defence from across the country. "The home secretary will review the preparations for civil defence being made across 244 districts. Chief secretaries and heads of civil defence from across the country will participate in the meeting via videoconferencing," an official in the know of the developments told PTI.

 

The home ministry on Monday asked all states to conduct mock drills on May 7 given the "new and complex threats". The preparedness comes amid heightened tensions with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. 

 

The civil defence mock drill includes sounding air-raid warning sirens, training civilians to protect themselves in the event of a "hostile attack" and cleaning bunkers and trenches. Other measures that will be covered as part of the drill include crash-blackout measures, early camouflaging of vital plants and installations and updating and rehearsing evacuation plans, PTI reported.

 

States must also check the operationalisation of hotline and radio-communication links with the Indian Air Force (IAF), testing the functionality of control rooms and shadow control rooms, the publication reported.

 

The mock drill comes in the wake of heightened tensions with neighbouring Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. As many as 26 persons were killed in the gruesome attack in Jammu and Kashmir, the worst since the abrogation of Article 370.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to avenge the killings and pursue the perpetrators of the attack and those who took part in its conspiracy to the "ends of the earth". 

India