With the number of women pilgrims participating in religious events like recently concluded Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra, increasing, the state police have decided to include a team of 50 women personnel in State Disaster Response Force (SDRF). Recently in a meeting with various departments, the Chief Minister has directed the officials to provide space (land) and other basic facilities to SDRF team at Kedarnath so that they could be deployed permanently there to conduct relief and rescue operations in case of emergency, State director general of Police BS Sidhu said.
Sidhu said that women police force will be deployed as a part of relief and rescue operations during religious events in the state. Women police personnel will be selected through physical and medical tests for SDRF and they will be given six weeks' training required to respond to disasters - natural or man-made- in the shortest time possible, minimising human casualties as per NDRF guidelines.
SDRF battalion commandant P Renuka Devi said that two companies of State Disaster Response Force will be deployed as a part of relief and rescue operations in the forthcoming Kedarnath Yatra, scheduled to begin from April 21. The SDRF will prepare its two companies by this year end while one of them will be readied for deployment before monsoon. She said after receiving training from NDRF, two companies of SDRF will be selected through physical and medical test. Earlier, in order to provide training on tackling natural disaster as per National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) guidelines, two companies consisting of 155 personnel, including sub-inspectors and constables, were trained at Patna, Ghaziabad and Bhatinda. The remaining two companies of SDRF will be provided training at the same venue.
State Government has assured a chopper for emergency deployment for the SDRF team in the disaster-hit areas, she said. "SDRF teams are being updated on how to act on meteorological warnings, especially in mountainous regions and teams are being put on alert if adverse weather conditions are forecast by the Met officers. Several teams of SDRF were deployed to train youths of villages in various districts, including Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Dehradun and Tehri, on how to save human life and property in disaster scenarios," she added