PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun On the directions of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the departments concerned will once again conduct a mock drill for an earthquake scenario on November 15. Disaster Management and Rehabilitation secretary Vinod Kumar Suman chaired a meeting on Wednesday regarding orientation and coordination for the mock exercise. Suman said that Dhami has directed that this exercise should be held to strengthen the coordination between the State’s linear departments and Central agencies and to ensure that rescue and relief efforts are undertaken effectively in an earthquake scenario. Stating that the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) has started preparations for the exercise, Suman said that a table-top exercise will be held on November 12 before the mock drill in all districts on November 15. The mock drill will be held as per the Incident Response System (IRS), he said, while adding that all districts will inform about their preparations, available resources, deployment of the resources and their plan for the mock drill during the table-top exercise. It was stated in the meeting that all districts of the State fall under seismic zones 4 and 5, considering which it is not enough only for the authorities to be prepared as the necessary reaction at the public level is also essential to mitigate the damage from an earthquake. The USDMA is working to strengthen the early warning system for earthquakes with work being undertaken in coordination with the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee to increase the number of sirens and sensors. A Bhudev application is also being developed, which will issue an alert in case of an earthquake stronger than five on the Richter scale, Suman said.
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