Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat postpone mock drills citing ‘administrative reasons’

Hours after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) ordered to hold mock drills in the states and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir bordering Pakistan on Thursday (May 29), Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat announced to postpone the exercise citing “administrative reasons”.

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As per orders issued by Rajasthan and Gujarat’s home departments late on Wednesday evening, it was announced that “It is hereby intimated that the Civil Defence Exercise “Operation Shield”, which was planned to be held on May 29is hereby postponed due to administrative reasons. It is requested that necessary directions to all controllers of civil defence and other stakeholders, may be issued accordingly. Next dates for the exercise shall be issued subsequently”.

There was no intimation of postponement of the exercise in J&K.

Meanwhile, Haryana, which is not a border state, stated that it would go ahead with the mock drill.

Highly placed sources informed that the mock drills will basically test various aspects that were found severely lacking during the May 7 exercise.

Serious lacunae were discovered in the civil defence infrastructure, non-functional hotlines, sirens malfunctioned at some places and the lack of training among volunteers was also observed, a top official told The Tribune.

Since the past three weeks, the government is aggressively focussing on ramping up the number of civil defence volunteers and also on providing them with specialised training.

Even involvement of local people, especially in the border states, will be specially focussed upon, as they are more acclimatised with the conditions and in case of a war-like situation or a natural disaster, when quick response is the need of the hour, they will be of immense help.

The Centre also plans to rope in private security agencies, as they have a huge workforce totalling up to more than 1 crore, with the official quoted above informing that these security agency personnel will be trained in civil defence.

Talks are currently on to rope in some big players in the field of private security set up, to train their personnel in civil defence preparedness, this official said further.

Also on the government’s MYBharat portal, more than 1.5 crore youth have registered themselves for undertaking training in civil defence, sources added.

In the light of these developments, the mock drills scheduled for May 29 will provide a clearer picture to the authorities on what further improvements are needed to enhance the civil defence infrastructure, as the May 7 drills were conducted on a short notice and therefore the infrastructure was found severely wanting.

In a related development, sources informed that chief secretaries of all states and UTs, will reassess the civil defence infrastructure, especially in the 244 civil defence districts of the country, keeping in mind their preparedness in case of a war-like exigency and natural calamity.

Based on their inputs, which will be shared with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the number of civil defence districts are likely to go up from the existing 244, sources said.