Shimla, May 27 (IANS) As nearly 70 per cent of the population of the hill state lives in earthquake-sensitive zones four and five and also sensitive to other types of natural disasters, the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (HPSDMA) will organise the ninth state-wide earthquake mock exercise in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority in all 12 districts on June 6, officials said on Tuesday.

An orientation and coordination workshop was organised for all stakeholders here for this exercise where Principal Advisor of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Major General (retd) Sudhir Bahl gave detailed information on the outline and action plan of the mega mock exercise based on earthquake virtually.

Deputy Commissioners, members of the District Disaster Management Team and sub-Divisional level officers participated in this workshop virtually.

Bahl said the objective of the mega mock exercise is to test and strengthen the coordination and readiness among various departments, agencies and people of the state to deal with natural disasters like earthquakes.

During the mock exercise, the functioning of emergency services, relief and rescue operations and availability of resources are to be practically tested.

He added that in view of the mock exercise a tabletop exercise would be conducted for which the heads and nodal officers of all departments concerned have been asked to ensure their presence.

He said that district and sub-division level officers would participate in the exercise through virtual mode.

Bahl added that if the state prepares itself to deal with earthquake through this mega mock exercise, preparations will automatically be made for other disasters as well.

Director and Special Secretary (Revenue and Disaster), D.C. Rana, gave detailed information about the preparations being made by the HPSDMA for state-wide mock exercise.

He said that with the joint efforts of the SMDAMA and NDMA, the mock exercise would prove to be an important step towards disaster management in the state as the state will be able to review the preparations and the ability to deal with other disasters will also be strengthened.

–IANS

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