Earthquake Mock Exercise in Haryana on December 21, 2017

In the run-up to the State-level mock exercise on earthquake preparedness to be held in Haryana on December 21, 2017, a coordination conference was held at the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Chandigarh. A detailed briefing about the mock exercise was carried out by Maj. Gen. (Retd.) V. K. Datta, Sr. Consultant, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Lt. Gen. (Retd.) N. C. Marwah, Member, NDMA, also participated in the meeting. Discussions were held to ensure that necessary arrangements for conducting the mock exercise are put in place.

The coordination conference was attended by the State’s Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Heads of Civil Defence & Home Guards, Fire, other line departments and ADCs from all districts of Haryana. District Collectors were available on videoconferencing. Officers from central agencies such as Army, Air Force, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were present. Captain Abhimanyu, Minister, Revenue & Disaster Management, Haryana chaired the special session followed by media briefing.

This exercise is being conducted by the Haryana State Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with the NDMA. It will help participating agencies and stakeholders in evaluating the effectiveness of their disaster response plans. NDMA has so far conducted more than 600 mock exercises in different States and Union Territories for various disaster situations in its efforts to improve preparedness and response mechanisms for various disaster situations. All nodal officers from stakeholder agencies participated in the meeting. All District Collectors and their teams participated in the meeting through videoconferencing.