The Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), Home Department conducted the 6th Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx), a state-wide mega mockdrill on earthquake disaster with a scenario of 7.1 magnitude on Thursday.
The NEPEx mockdrill began by sounding of siren bell at 9.03am from Police Headquarter, Kohima.
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Home Commissioner Abhijit Sinha, addressing the media after the exercise, said that overall, the exercise was better than the previous years. With every exercise we come to know our shortcomings which need to be addressed so that when a disaster strikes we are able to handle it better than what we are handling during the mock exercise, added Sinha.
Mentioning that communication is one key aspect during such situations, Sinha observed that this area needs to be seriously looked into with more trainings and reorientations in the way communication is handled.
The Home Commissioner also pointed out that there is a big possibility of normal communication channels collapsing when disaster strikes resorting to use of radio or satellite communication. This disaster exercise is one of the learning experiences that we are getting and there is always a room for improvement. We have noted down points and areas where we need to strengthen, said Sinha.
Maj. Gen. Sudir Bahl (Retd), Senior Consultant (ME & IRS) of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), highlighted the aspect of ensuring full proof communications and getting all stakeholders on board including central agencies to ensure a cogent response which will incorporate an all government and society approach.
Bahl also emphasized on the need to incorporate state of art decision support system to allow any information that is coming, to be displayed in a real time and in practical manner which allows the decision makers to know what exactly has happened so that they can be in a position to give a decision which is based on the actual ground situation.
He also observed that there is a need to have more pragmatic hospital disaster management plans.
Further, the senior consultant of NDMA lauded the state for continuously conducting mockdrills on various disasters with all keenness and the desire to improve which he said, is a good and positive indicator.
