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Civil defence drills planned in border states postponed
The order, seen by HT, listed seven different scenarios for the district administration and civil defence volunteers to respond to, including air raids, drone attacks at military stations and complete blackouts
The mega civil defence drill scheduled across the border states of Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, as well as the Union Territory of Jammu& Kashmir on Thursday evening has been postponed, officials aware of the matter said, adding that a new date is yet to be announced.
The Directorate General Fire Services, Civil Defence, and Home Guards — a federal body under the MHA — had on Tuesday written to the chief secretaries about the Union home ministry’s decision to hold a civil defence exercise, titled Operation Shield, across all districts in states and UTs adjoining the western border.
The order, seen by HT, listed seven different scenarios for the district administration and civil defence volunteers to respond to, including air raids, drone attacks at military stations and complete blackouts.
An officer aware of the development on Wednesday night said the comprehensive drill has been suspended. “An order has been issued regarding the suspension of mock drill tomorrow(May 29). The new date is yet to be announced,” the officer said, refusing to divulge the reason for the new order.
A senior Gujarat government official also confirmed receiving a new order from the directorate on Wednesday night about the suspension of the exercise.
Earlier in the day, Punjab home department informed the directorate that it was unable to hold the drill on Thursday as its volunteers were currently being trained by the National Disaster Response Force(NDRF), and postponed the drill to June 3.
“Our best volunteers are currently under training by the NDRF. They are the best volunteers who will further train other volunteers. It would have been futile to conduct the exercise without our main volunteers. Mock drills are important. We requested for the drill to be postponed, which has been agreed. We will have a detailed mock drill across Punjab on June 3,” Sanjeev Kalra, special director general of police, told HT in the evening.
Although the MHA is yet to share details on the drill or comment on why it was suspended, the directorate in its May 27 letter to the chief secretaries of the five states said that “critical gaps were observed” during the first such drill on May 7 after which “emergency powers were invoked and funds were sent to the SDRF.”
Pakistan sent thousands of militarised drones between May 8 and 11 to target civilian population and military installations in response to India’s successful execution of Operation Sindoor. The drones were shot down by India’s air defence systems.
“There is no cause of panic. This is just preparation in case of an attack...,” another officer said.
