DDMA to carry out disaster exercises for Delhi hospitals

The Delhi Emergency Management Exercise (DEMEX) will be carried out by DDMA in coordination with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The brand ambassador for the exercise will be cricketer Virender Sehwag, Joint-Secretary in NDMA Sujata Saunik said told reporters.

Various nitty-gritties of the exercise was finalised today at a workshop attended by NDMA Vice-Chairman Shashidhar Reddy, Urban Development Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, Health Minister A K Walia and senior officials of both NDMA and DDMA.

All the government as well as private hospitals will be involved in the exercise during which training programmes, mock drills and awareness campaigns will be organised.

"The exercise is being undertaken to fine tune our emergency medical response system. We are carrying out similar exercise in Guwahati also," Saunik said.

Divisional Commissioner of the Delhi Government, who will oversee the entire exercise, said all private and government hospitals will have to follow disaster management drills and any non-compliance will attract punitive action. The entire exercise will culminate on December 9.

Dev said independent observers will scrutinise the exercise and based on their report, corrective measures will be undertaken.

He said often people show reluctance to take victims of disasters and accidents to hospitals fearing harassment by police and government was considering steps to address the problem.

"We are in talks with our legal department to put in place a system so that people do not face any inconvenience later by police. We are considering taking an affidavit from concerned person on details of the matter so that he or she does not require to go to police or other legal authority later," Dev said.

Asked whether it was not proper for government to regularise over 900 unauthorised colonies in the city as most of them comprise large number of unsafe buildings, Saunik declined to give a direct reply but said narrow lanes in such settlements often create hindrance in providing emergency services at times of disaster.