New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed all states and Union Territories to strengthen civil defence preparedness through, among other steps, training civilians and school students, ThePrint has learnt.
In a letter addressed to the chief secretaries of states and administrators of all the UTs, the MHA said Monday that the central government has decided to organise civil defence exercises and rehearsals across 244 districts in the country on 7 May.
“The conduct of the exercise is planned up to the village level. This exercise aims to assess and enhance the readiness of Civil Defence mechanisms across all States and Union Territories,” the Directorate General Fire Services, Civil Defence & Home Guards wrote.
The directions came three days after MHA first instructed states and UTs to ramp up their civil defence mechanisms, such as ensuring the installation and operability of air raid sirens and to take stock of sudden blackout SOPs, immediately. Additionally, the ministry has alerted states and UTS that maximum participation from all stakeholders, such as various district authorities, civil defence wardens and volunteers, home guards, National Cadet Corps (NCC), and college and school students, has been planned.
“The said Civil Defence Exercise is aimed to assess the operational efficacy and operational coordination of various Civil Defence measures,” added the letter, a copy of which ThePrint has seen.
On Friday, the MHA had reminded states and UTs about a letter from the Union home secretary in January 2023 asking them to set up and maintain optimum civil defence preparedness in the country’s categorised civil defence towns and districts.
The directions Monday were issued around the same time Prime Minister Narendra Modi met National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval in South Block. Earlier in the day, Modi also met Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.
On Sunday, the Army cantonment in the border town of Ferozepur in Punjab had conducted a rehearsal to assess blackout procedures to be followed in response to a threat.
The directions also come close on the heels of several high-level meetings chaired by Modi and attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among other members of the Cabinet, over the state of internal security following the terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives.
On 27 April, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into the attack. It has so far questioned more than 300 suspects, collected eyewitness accounts and recorded statements of family members of the victims in connection with the attack.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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