Port Blair, Feb 6: To accelerate the preparation for conducting of State Level Mock Exercise (ME) (TATPAR– 2023) scheduled on 09.02.2023, the Secretary (Disaster Management), A&N Administration Shri A.S.P.S. Ravi Prakash, IAS chaired a review meeting today on 06.02.2023 in the Conference Hall of Secretariat, Port Bair on virtual mode which was attended by Dy. Commissioner, N&M Andaman, Asst. Commissioners, Rangat & Diglipur and other stakeholders of ANI alongwith Director (Disaster Management), Asst. Directors of DDM and Dy. Commandant, NDRF, 04 Bn, Arakkonam.

Dr. Nitin Shakya, Director (Disaster Management) welcomed all the participants and explained about the importance of conducting the State Level Mock Exercise by the Administration in coordination with National Disaster Management Authority, NDRF, INCOIS, District Administrations, line Departments and other stakeholders of ANI.  Further, he emphasized on the importance of awareness, preparedness and mitigation efforts with regard to Disaster Management and urged to each stakeholders to respond as per their designated roles and responsibilities in accordance with the Incident Response System (IRS) of ANI during the exercise.

Shri A.S.P.S. Ravi Prakash, IAS, Secretary (DM), A&N Administration briefed the objectives of the proposed State Level Mock Exercise and taken the stock of disaster preparedness of all districts, sub-divisions and islands. He also illustrated about the crucial preparations which were required to mitigate the worst scenario after occurrence of a natural disaster and emphasized about the advantages of having the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to respond any eventuality in professional manner.

While speaking in the meeting, Dr. Satyendra Singh Dursawat, Dy. Commissioner, N&M Andaman informed that the SOP of N&M Andaman District has been updated and meetings conducted with all stakeholders to review the disaster preparedness of the District. Ms. Sapna Priya, Asst. Commissioner (Middle Andaman) also appraised the preparedness on Mock Exercise. Shri T.K.S. Ajayan, Asst. Director (Ops.), DDM has also explained the revised scenarios proposed to be created in the said mock exercise by the NDMA and INCOIS and attended the queries of the participants.