Team Blitz India
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has enlisted 1,000 community volunteers who will visit 74 vulnerable areas from next month to impart training in disaster management.
These volunteers, also known as ‘Aapda Mitras’ (first responders), will be divided into teams at ward levels. These teams will help communicate and alert citizens during monsoons, said a civic official.
Around 249 landslide-prone areas were examined by the Geological Survey of India last year. BMC has identified 74 locations under the ‘most vulnerable’ category this year too.
The civic body sends notices to the inhabitants of these places and tries to shift them to safer locations. However, many times people are not ready to leave their huts. So, the civic authorities started training residents as it would help in saving lives and help in timely evacuation.
The first batch of these volunteers who have been trained in disaster management played an active role during the monsoon last year.
“They have been trained in basic search and rescue, community-based first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), controlling bleeding, basic fire safety, lifting and moving patients, rope rescue techniques,” said a senior civic official BMC will also conduct a ‘recce’ of the most vulnerable spots to be familiar with in that area so that in case of any incident in the monsoon, the rescue team could easily access the spot and start the operation.
The recce will be carried out by BMC along with National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), Army and Navy personnel in May.
