Sabroom, August 22 (TIWN): The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in association with the Sabroom Sub Division Disaster Management unit conducted a multi-stage mega mock drill for a hypothetical earthquake and fire incident on the occasion.

The aim of the program was to raise awareness on how people are taking actions to reduce the risks due to disasters. This year's theme "Resilience is for life: Older persons and disasters" was focused on senior citizens. Sajal Debnath DCM Sabroom, one of those who attended the drill, told TIWN, "We were taught how to act during disasters and fire incidents. I also learned how to douse fire with gas. It will be of great help," he added. Various security forces including the National Disaster Reserve Force (NDRF) and firefighters rushed to different premises like Sabroom College,3 HS School,Sabroom Hospital and Kalachara Hspital and took control of the presumably arising situation. Hypothetically injured victims were rushed to the hospital and the medical staff took necessary steps for their treatment and simultaneously rescue operations of those trapped were also conducted by various rescue NGO agencies. The mock drill was organized with the objective to see the coordination of different agencies in order to ensure an organized and structural mechanism, and to see the functioning of allied agencies during the disastrous situation. It was also meant to build the capacity of the staff and to assess the preparedness of the concerned agencies and the people.

A pledge for disaster preparedness was also administered among the staff, who also got to use some of the disaster fighting equipments and get information on their uses. All the eight North Eastern states and 16 cities come under the seismic zone with a high degree of risk and vulnerability to high intensity earthquakes. Tripura comes under zone five of seismic zone with a high degree of risk and vulnerability to high intensity earthquakes.