Civil defence mock drills to be conducted in 12 districts of Odisha on Wednesday

Bhubaneswar: Civil defence mock drills will be conducted in 12 districts of Odisha on Wednesday as per instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), a senior officer said.

Amid growing tension between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, the MHA has issued directives to states, including Odisha, to conduct full-scale civil defence mock drills on May 7.

A high-level preparatory meeting was conducted by the MHA with all states through the virtual mode for conduct of the mock drill. Following the instruction of MHA, the Odisha government held a preparatory meeting here on Tuesday.

Sudhansu Sarangi, DG, Fire Services, who attended the meeting, said the MHA has asked all states, including Odisha, to conduct the mock drill at 4 pm on Wednesday.

The mock drill will be held in Angul, Khurda, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Ganjam, Dhenkanal, Puri, Koraput, Sambalpur and Sundargarh, he said.

The mock drills will continue for a week and will be taken to the village level. The fire service department will conduct the mock drill in some urban areas while the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) will conduct the drill in coastal areas on Wednesday, Sarangi said.

The main objective of the drill is to create awareness among people on air raids to protect themselves in the event of an air strike by the enemy, he said.

"The air raid sirens will blare for nearly 5 minutes at 4 pm on Wednesday. We request the people to take shelter in concrete roof buildings when the siren blares," the fire service DG said.

He said that dedicated shelter homes will be identified for the slum dwellers.

Rescue and response following the mock attack will be drilled on May 7. State and district-level control rooms will be made functional soon, he added.

"There is no need to panic. It will be a mock drill like OSDMA conducts cyclone mock drills in coastal areas. It will be conducted to make people prepared to deal with any such situation," Sarangi said.

Executive director of OSDMA, Kamol Lochan Mishra, said all people including school and college students will be involved in the exercise.

Meanwhile, a five-member NSG team visited Puri to review the security arrangements made at the Jagannath temple. The team held a meeting with Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and will meet senior Puri Police officers.

"As part of their nation-wide plan to review the security arrangements at vital and key installations across the country, they (the NSG team) are here to review the security made for Puri's Jagannath temple. We are cooperating with them in this regard," Puri Superintendent of Police Vinit Agrawal said.

"There is no specific threat input. However, the police are always giving priority to Jagannath temple," he added.