Balrampur. Under the instructions of the government and the direction of the Relief Commissioner's Office and Uttar Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, a state level disaster management mock exercise was organized in Balrampur district on Friday. Under the direction of District Magistrate and Responsible Officer Dr. Vipin Kumar Jain, preparedness to deal with disasters like earthquake, industrial chemical leakage and fire was tested in all three tehsils of the district.
The main mock drill was held in the chemical division of Balrampur Sugar Mill located in Nagar. During the exercise, imaginary information was given to the district level control room about a fire due to chemical leakage in the ethanol plant after the earthquake and the trapping of 15 laborers and some employees. As soon as the information was received, Incident Commander Additional District Magistrate Finance and Revenue Sandeep Kela alerted the concerned officials.
Under the direction of the District Magistrate, police, fire, health department, SDRF, SSB and sugar mill security teams jointly conducted relief and rescue operations. Rescue teams safely rescued the people trapped in the chemical division. The medical team practiced health check-up of the affected people and sent them to the joint hospital for treatment.
Exercise on different disasters in all three tehsils
In case of fire in the building in Tulsipur Tehsil complex, the fire department practiced quick relief and rescue operations. Whereas Mohd. of Utraula tehsil. A mock drill for the safe evacuation of school children in case of an earthquake was conducted at Yusuf Osmani Inter College. The fire fighting team practiced rescuing students trapped in the building and informed the students about what to do and what not to do during a disaster.
Balrampur comes in Zone-4
District Magistrate Dr. Vipin Kumar Jain said that Balrampur district falls in Zone-4 in terms of earthquake sensitivity. The purpose of the mock drill is to test the preparedness, resources and response time of various departments at the time of disaster and to make officers, employees and the general public aware and trained about disaster prevention. He said that such exercises help in effectively conducting rescue and relief operations during actual disasters. There is also better coordination between various departments and identification of shortcomings.
Superintendent of Police Martand Prakash Singh said that apart from testing the preparedness of the departments towards the disaster, the public is also being made aware through mock drills. Chief Development Officer Himanshu Gupta said that the mock exercise provides an opportunity to analyze the status of resources, response time and shortcomings in preparedness.
Officers and employees of various departments including Police, Fire, Health, Transport, Education, Municipal Corporation, Supply, Electricity, PWD, NCC, SSB, Army, Civil Defense Cadets and Aapda Mitras participated in the mock exercise. For the successful organization of the mock exercise, Additional District Magistrate Sandeep Kela, Additional Sub-District Magistrate Sanjay Yadav and disaster expert Arun Singh were given the responsibility of coordination.
The concerned SDM was named the nodal officer for the exercise conducted at Balrampur Sugar Mill, Tulsipur Tehsil and Utraula. During this, SSB Commandant, Additional Superintendent of Police Vishal Pandey and officers of various departments, SDRF and fire personnel, NCC cadets, school students and Aapda Mitras were present.