Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju oversees NDRF mockdrill in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju today visited the headquarters of the 8th battalion of NDRF here and watched mock drills performed by the disaster relief force with a group of UN representative led by Margareta Wahlström.

The disaster relief force demonstrated elaborate drills involving manual, canine and technical searches.

A display of the equipment and machinery used by the rescue workers was also lined up.

DG of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) O P Singh was present on the occasion.

"India has overcome many a natural disasters and the 12 battalion of NDRF men is a world wonder. Within a span of 10 years, we have created a very strong NDRF team. So, today we had a demonstration here in Ghaziabad and the UN team which has accompanied us got an opportunity to see what NDRF is," Rijiju said after the conclusion of the event.

The mock drill displayed today was a crisis situation after an earthquake.

NDRF conducts mock drills regularly on cyclone, flood, mass causality management and earthquake among other disasters.

The MoS also said the home ministry would provide every support to ensure that a permanent structure for the NDRF in Ghaziabad comes up soon which is currently a prefabricated site.

"From the Home Ministry, whatever support is needed by the NDRF will be provided. Right now we have prefabricated structure. We have got a nice area here and we will see to make it a concrete structure. Ghaziabad is a very important headquarters as it covers the capital and the rest of northern India," Rijiju added.