High-level Central Team to make on-the-spot assessment of flood situation in Tamil Nadu

High-level Central Team to make on-the-spot assessment of flood situation in Tamil Nadu

Centre sanctions over Rs 939 crore as flood relief assistance to Tamil Nadu

A high-level Inter-Ministerial Central Team led by Shri TVSN Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs has been deputed for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation in the wake of the recent floods following heavy rains in Tamil Nadu.

The team will include representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture, Finance, Rural Development, Drinking Water and Power from Delhi, representatives of Ministries of Road Transport and Highways and Health from Chennai and Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources from Bengaluru. The team has been deputed following a request from the State Government to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Earlier, the Prime Minister on Monday, November 23, 2015 had instructed the release of financial assistance worth Rs. 939.63 crore immediately to Tamil Nadu to assist it in dealing with the situation arising from the floods. 

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Joint Field Exercise on Chemical Emergency conducted in SAADMEx - 2015 

On the third day of the South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise (SAADMEx) - 2015, today, Joint Field Training Exercise on Chemical Emergency was conducted by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at LG India Pvt. Ltd., Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) with active participation of all eight SAARC nations,- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

It was presumed that due to an earthquake, there is report of chemical gas leakage in the plant. There is panic situation in the vicinity of the factory and few workers are reportedly affected due to exposure to the chemical gases. The impact of leakage of gas is affecting larger area and the situation seems to be out of the capability of factory and local administration. Considering the gravity of impact of the chemical emergency, help of National and International response force is decided to be asked.

Subsequently, rescue teams of all South Asian countries promptly responded and mobilized to the incident site. Command Post, Staging Area, Base of Operation (BoO), Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), Communication Centre, Decontamination Station, Planning Section, Resource Unit, Medical first aid post and Media Enclave was established by NDRF near the operation site as per the International Search & Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) guidelines.

Rescue Teams demonstrated quick response and executing their Chemical Emergency rescue skills and professional capabilities to evacuate the victims from the factory. Further, condition of victims was stabilized at Medical First Aid Post established near the incident site. Thereafter, leakage gas pipeline was shielded by the team with the help of high-tech equipment. The Joint Field Training Exercise was conducted under the overall supervision of Shri OP Singh, Director General, NDRF.

Shri Singh expressed his immense pleasure on successful conduct of today’s Joint Field Exercise based on Chemical Emergency and said that the exercise positively met its objectives. He further said that for the purpose of giving actual feel of Chemical Emergency (Exercise), scenario of leakage of gases was painted by NDRF with the help of factory staff. He hoped that the exercise will be quite fruitful to Rescue Teams of each SAARC nation to understand their Chemical Emergency capabilities and skills on a common platform and also to have an exposure of International standard of response mechanism as envisaged by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

The exercise was witnessed by representatives and senior officers of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Army, NDRF, State representatives and other senior dignitaries.  They also appreciated the professional approach of shielding technique of leakage gas pipeline, handling of victims and stabilizing victims methodology exhibited by the teams during today’s field exercise.

          In the series of this exercise, ‘After Action Review’ (AAR) and debriefing session will be organised in New Delhi tomorrow to evaluate the operational effectiveness of Regional response and also to chalk out the future response mechanism of participating teams.

The first SAADMEx - 2015 is being organised in New Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) from November 23-26, 2015. NDRF is playing the lead role in conducting SAADMEx - 2015 with the support of NDMA, NIDM, MHA, & MEA. For the first time, all SAARC nations came together and joined hands to undertake such a massive field training exercise on combating an earthquake like disaster and chemical emergency on a common platform with their specialized skills and state-of-the-art equipment.