Earthquake drills for secretariats

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, FEB 15: the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in collaboration with the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and the Secretariat Administration Department carried out a mock drill simulating an earthquake to promote disaster preparedness, mitigation and response in the main and additional secretariat buildings on Thursday.

The whole exercise of evacuation, search and rescue of persons trapped inside the buildings and providing first aid treatment and triage before being shifted by ambulances to hospitals, saw an active participation from the officers and staff of the Meghalaya Secretariat, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Civil Defence, MPRO, Police, Health, Fire and Emergency Services, MeECL, PWD, EMRI 108, volunteers from NCC, Bharat Scouts and Guides, Indian Red Cross Society and others line departments.

After the exercise, a de-briefing meeting was held at Yojana Bhavan attended by PW Ingty, Additional Chief Secretary, in-charge Revenue and Disaster Management department, I Mawlong, Executive Director, SDMA, I.Majaw, CEO, DDMA and observers drawn from various department which includes NDRF, Civil Defence, NEIGRIHMS, Military Hospital, BSF and PWD.

During the de-briefing meeting, all the observers stressed on the need to carry out the drill regularly in the secretariat buildings so as to inculcate a culture of preparedness and response among the officers and staff and also to improve the coordination between various line departments in the search and rescue exercise.