Tamil Nadu To Extend Civil Defence Mock Drills To Major Reservoirs Next Week

On Sunday, May 11, the Tamil Nadu government declared that civil defence simulated exercises to evaluate readiness at key infrastructure locations would continue into the next week. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is directing these drills, which are only meant to serve as preventative readiness exercises and are not to raise any alarm among the general public.

Mock drills have been conducted at key locations throughout the state since May 7, including ports, atomic power plants, airports, and thermal power plants.
An air raid scenario was recreated during drills on Saturday at the Thoothukudi Thermal Power Station in the Thoothukudi district and the VO Chidambaranar Port Authority. The goal was to assess the civil defence system's preparedness for a wartime disaster, with a particular emphasis on first assistance, safe evacuation, and protection.

In keeping with this endeavour, the state will carry out comparable simulated exercises in significant reservoirs under the control of the Water Resources Department (WRD) throughout the upcoming week. The responsible officials will lead tabletop exercises to start the process, which will be followed by on-site simulated drills in specific locations. In the second part of the week, District Collectors and the Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner would supervise these.

The administration stressed that these drills are standard procedures to evaluate emergency readiness at key sites and won't interfere with regular operations elsewhere. The public is advised not to panic or misunderstand the exercises' intent.

Following retaliatory Indian strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7, these drills follow the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22.