Keeping in line with the Centre's directives to conduct mock civil defence drills as a preparedness exercise to assess the country's readiness for attacks, Pune district collector Jitendra Dudi on Tuesday said the drills will be conducted at three locations in Pune on Wednesday. Stating that the city will not see a blackout and only agencies and defence forces involved in the drill will respond to the sirens, Dudi said the drills will be conducted at the Council Hall--which is the office of the Divisional Commissioner of Pune in Camp area, the Talegaon Municipal Council and the Mulshi Panchayat Samiti. The drill will be conducted at 4pm and is expected to last less than three hours. Officials said the decision to conduct the drill at these three locations has been taken as the Council Hall is in an urban area, Talegaon a semi-urban area, and Mulshi falls in a rural region. Cities in Maharashtra such as Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, and Aurangabad will be holding the mock drill according to the Union Government’s direction to northern and western states and Union Territories to test and strengthen civil defence mechanisms. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army, Air Force, fire department, Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, health department, police, revenue department, National Service Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC) are some of the agencies that will be a part of the drill. Dudi said 100-150 college students from various colleges will also take part in the drill. Explaining the idea behind the drill, Dudi said the ringing of the siren is indicative of an attack on the city, which would alert people to take cover. The people who are left behind, he added, will be considered stranded and they will be rescued by the various agencies in coordination. The mock drill will be a test for this exercise. "There are 76 sirens in the city , which have not been used since the 1965 war. The testing for these sirens has begun in the city and the ones that need repairs would be fixed," said the district collector. "The aim of the mock drill is to raise awareness among people. Pune is an important city and district as there are Army and Air force establishments here…,” said Dudi adding that a hotline and a war room would be set up in the near future to facilitate communication and coordination between the district administration and other agencies.
