Dehradun, April 27

Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) has prepared a detailed action plan to train local Yuvak and Mahila Mangal Dals in search and rescue operations and equip them to deal with calamities.

The plan has been drawn up in view of the fact that it is the locals who launch initial search and rescue operations in the affected areas in case of a disaster but fail to do much due to lack of proper training and equipment, a USDMA press release here said.

This is the further extension of a programme already being conducted by the USDMA under which it has imparted training in search and rescue operations to 15,300 local people in 612 nyay panchayats of the state.

The local Yuvak and Mahila Mangal Dals

will have to undergo training for six days by registered voluntary organisations, it said.

Gram pradhans (village heads) have also been asked to co-operate in the exercise by providing the trained groups with necessary technical equipment like loud hailers, searchlights, ropes and first-aid kits to conduct search and rescue operations in times of a disaster.

The expenditure to be incurred over the training exercise will be met out of the state disaster response fund, the release said. — PTI