Title - Confusion mars Chanda mock bomb drill

CHANDRAPUR: The mock bomb detection drill conducted by superintendent of police Rajiv Jain, at the railway station, to test the preparedness of the various units of the police force exposed several loopholes.The drill revealed that while the speed of response of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) and the dog squad was poor, the fire brigade and the ambulance services couldn't even make it to the scene.The drill began in the afternoon with a relay of fake emergency massages about recovery of a bomb on Chandrapur railway station being sent to all units of the police department. All units including squads of City and Ramnagar police, rapid response unit, RCP, BDDS, dog squad, reserve forces from headquarter, RPF, GRP and C-60 rushed to the railway station.However, the police control room messed up the content of the message such that several of the units got a message about an outbreak of riot while others were told about detection of a bomb at the railway station. Due to the ensuing confusion the response time of each of the unit was poor. BDDS and the dog squad were late to arrive on the scene. Key units such as the fire brigade and the ambulance services completely failed to come at all. The traffic police too didn't reached the scene. Another interesting fact was that those who had responded came totally ill equipped in dealing with a terrorist threat. The cops came with lathis instead of weapons. Even the GRP and RPF were not notified in time and its officials were late to respond to the emergency.

"There was some confusion in the content of the message. I had directed the control room to send a message about the detection of a bomb at the railway station in order to check the response time of various units in the backdrop of the recent bomb blasts at Pune. However some units got the wrong message about outbreak of riots. The confusion was one of the main reasons behind the poor response time of the teams," said SP Rajiv Jain, talking to TOI.

The drill also revealed that BDDS squad was not deft in responding to bomb emergencies. The dress worn by the bomb squad personnel were outdated. "We have discovered several shortcomings in deftness of response of our units to the emergency call. This mock drill was in- fact meant to detect the faults, so that they can be rectified if there is any similar real time emergency. I will see to it that every weakness discovered during the drill is rectified as quick as possible," Jain said.

Jain himself checked the efficiency and response of every unit of the police force at the railway station. Later he inspected the railway station with the senior officers.

Photo - SP Rajiv Jain inspecting the different units of police force

File - Mock Drill-1

2) BDDS personnel wearing the special dress to deal with emergency

File - Mock Drill-2

3) SP Rajiv Jain inspecting the railway station with other officers

File - Mock Drill-3