Mock Drills In 8 Maharashtra Districts Today

Mumbai: A day after the central government’s instructions to conduct mock drills in the state, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday identified eight vulnerable districts which can be targeted by Pakistan during a war like situation. The eight districts include Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Sindhdurg, Nashik and Pune. Of these, Mumbai, Uran in Raigad district and Tarapur in Palghar district have been classified as highly sensitive locations.

The state home department has asked all eight district collectors to conduct mock drills with the help of the NCC and deputy controllers of Civil Defence Forces at vital installations and establishments at their respective jurisdictions. The mock drills will be conducted from 10 am onwards on Wednesday, a senior official said.

In addition to this, the Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation department also wrote to all eight district collectors and additional commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to conduct a mock drill exercise on Wednesday. In Mumbai, the civic body will conduct a mock drill at Anushakti Nagar, which has a vital installation of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and other organisations within the Department of Atomic Energy. Other agencies including Mumbai Police will also assist in the drill scheduled to take place around 4.00 pm on Wednesday.

Union home secretary Govind Mohan chaired a meeting in connection with mock drills with the Directors of Civil Defence of each state and senior officials of the home department and NDRF via video conferencing (VC). Vulnerable districts are those districts, which have vital installations of the military and nuclear establishments.

Apart from this, coastline districts have also been earmarked vulnerable and sensitive districts. Nashik has vital military installations such as school of Artillery, Deolali, which is considered a premier artillery training institution, while Pune district is home to the Pune Cantonment, including the headquarters of Indian Army's Southern Command and the National War Memorial Southern Command.

Palghar district houses a major nuclear power plant, known as Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS). Raigad district houses Oil rigs in Uran, which has a crucial installment of ONGC. Other four districts Mumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri and Sindhdurg are situated on the coastline of the state. Therefore, they have also been marked vulnerable districts.

A senior official, who attended the meeting, said that they have been asked to conduct a mock drill at each village of these eight districts to see how much the agencies and citizens are prepared to combat the situation.

“With such mock drills, we will come to know about lacuna, which will be rectified by conducting multiple mock drills in the coming days after Wednesday’s first mock drill. We have also instructed the district authorities to give training to the civilians, students and general public to adopt self protection measures during a crisis situation. We have also asked to make arrangements to cover significant installations, establishments and buildings in view of the escalating situation. We have also instructed to chalk out measures for shifting of the citizens to safer places,” the senior official said.

The state government has also asked to set up a civil defence control room in all the eight districts. “We have instructed civil defence to fill all the vacant posts,” the official said. At present, there are 50,000 defense personnel in the state.

The mock drills include the operationalisation of air-raid warning sirens, crash blackout, training civilians on civil-defence aspects to protect themselves in the event of a "attack by missile". Officials said that mock drills will be conducted at 16 places in Maharashtra.