Operation Abhyaas showcases emergency preparedness on Mysuru Palace premises

Mysuru: Amid the Operation Sindoor, Mysuru district administration created awareness on its preparedness to handle an emergency and about rescue operations, by holding a civil defence exercise 'Operation Abhyaas' on the Mysuru Palace premises, on Saturday, from 5.15 pm to 6.15 pm.

The sound of five to six rounds of blank ammunition, fired by the police, depicting an air raid, reverberated, tourists, who had gathered in large numbers due to summer holidays, ran helter skelter.

Movement of a training flight, drones, three agi bikes; buzz of sirens of two fire tenders, one water bowser, one medium rescue van, medical aid team, fire apron team of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services (KFES) department; and movement of eight ambulances of the Health Department pushed the tourists into panic. Once they realised that it was a mock drill, they relaxed and watched the rescue operation keenly.

A few people, who pretended to have been injured and dead, were evacuated by 63 personnel of KFES department, led by director T N Shivashankara, and Chief Fire Officer P S Jayaramaiah.

Forty-six staff mmebers of Health Department, led by DHO Dr P C Kumarswamy, gave first aid and segregated them to moderately injured and severely injured, by tying red and black colour tapes.

The teams lifted the injured in stretchers, shifted the severely injured in ambulances, and those who suffered minor injuries in two KSRTC buses. A team of KFES department demonstrated different methods of fire extinguishing and advanced technologies to make space between iron bars, to pull those stuck under them.

Civil defence exercise 'Operation Abhyaas' taken up by Mysuru district administration on the Mysuru Palace premises on Saturday evening.

A team of CISF and over 200 police personnel, led by Police Commissioner Seema Latkar, DCPs Mutthuraj and Sunder Raj and Mysuru district SP N Vishnuvardhan, rushed to spot and beefed up security measures. Anti-sabotage team, dog squads, and forensic team inspected the spot.

Sarala (80), who had read about a mock drill in newspapers had come from Udaygiri to watch it. Basamma from Devanagao of Sindagi taluk of Vijaypura district, a tourist, said, "I was scared initially. Later I felt confident about the measures taken to rescue and protect us."

ACP, Mysuru Palace Board, H M Chandrashekar and Palace Board Deputy Director T S Subramanya also joined. Mysuru DC G Lakshmikanth Reddy and ADC P Shivaraju led the operations.

D C Reddy said, "We chose Mysuru Palace, as it is crowded, to test the district administration's preparedness to handle emergencies, right from receiving calls at the emergency helpline to entry of fire tenders, ambulance, medical aid, evacuation, treatment and security measures. This was done to know, if we need to improve in any area. We have already formed 12 civil defence teams".

Police Commissioner Seema said that the security is already beefed up in the city, especially at several important places like CFTRI, Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran. Police beats have been increased and we have intensified CCTV camera surveillance are and monitoring.

A mock drill is scheduled near KRS dam in Mandya district on Sunday evening. A rehearsal was held on Saturday evening. People of nearby villages panicked and had became apprehensive of the dam's safety. But they relaxed after hearing about the drill, officials said.