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Ahead of the Civil Defence Exercise and rehearsal which are being organised across 244 districts in the country on May 7 amid tensions with Pakistan, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan has called for a meeting regarding the exercises at 10:45 AM on Tuesday.
The Home Secretary will be reviewing the preparations for the exercise which are set to begin on May 7 as announced by Union Home Ministry, in an effort to boost to civil defence preparations and aims to assess and enhance the readiness of Civil Defence mechanisms across states and Union Territories. The exercise is planned up to the village level. Chief Secretaries and heads of civil defence from across the country will participate in the meeting via video conferencing. On May 5, a letter from the MHA informed about the mock drills, and asked several states to conduct their drills for effective civil defence. "Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to organise Civil Defence Exercise and Rehearsal across 244 categorised Civil Defence Districts of the country on May 7, 2025," the letter said. The primary objectives of the mock drill include assessing the effectiveness of air raid warning systems, operationalisation of hotline, radio communication links with IAF, testing functionality of control rooms and shadow rooms, training of civilians including students on civil defence aspects to protect themselves in the event of hostile attack and provision of crash blackout measures. The objectives also include the provision of early camouflaging of vital installations, to verify the activation and response of Civil Defence Services including warden services, firefighting, rescue operations and depot management, assessing the implementation of crash blackout measures and evaluating the preparedness of evacuation plans and their execution. The Home Ministry had on May 2 written to Chief Secretaries of all states and UTs about civil defence preparedness in the vulnerable areas and districts. MHA has identified a total of 295 vulnerable towns/districts of the country, where Civil Defence measures needs to be implemented during the peace time. Tensions have risen with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. (ANI)
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