In view of Telangana witnessing a series of industrial accidents in recent times, the state government in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will conduct state-level mock exercises to check preparedness for floods and industrial accidents on December 22.

A video conference was held with all stakeholders here on Friday to discuss the schedule of these exercises.

Addressing the participants, Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao said that in recent times, Telangana has been witnessing sudden floods due to unexpected and unexplained weather conditions.

A few major industrial accidents also occurred in the state, he said while instructing all participants to take this exercise seriously and build up skills, resources and responses to meet the challenges in future.

He appreciated the NDMA’s guidance and coordination in conducting this exercise.

The main objective of these mock exercises is to test and strengthen the preparedness of the state, districts and departments, to operationalise the incident response systems, inter-departmental coordination and effectiveness of emergency support functions and the roles of the SDMA, TG ICCC, SDRF, district collectors and other agencies, he said.

Vikram Singh Mann, DG Telangana Fire Disaster Response Emergency and Civil Defence Department, Lieutenant General Ata Hussain, member NDMA, Major General Sudhir Bahl, lead consultant (ME&IRS) NDMA and others attended the conference.