THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : To cope with emergencies effectively, given continued disasters faced by the state year-on-year, a new disaster rescue force, comprising civil volunteers - Kerala Civil Defence - is being formed under the Kerala Fire and Rescue Department.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the new force on Tuesday. Units of Civil Defence Force will be located in areas frequently hit by landslides, flooding or storms. Apart from disaster rescues, the force will attend emergencies at accident sites involving vehicle crashe or other causes.
Various units of the Force will will revolve around 124 Fire and Rescue stations that dot the state. Each unit will have 50 volunteers. who would undergo specialty training. 6200 people will be inducted into the Force in the first phase. The new Force seeks to engage women and various experts too.
The Civil Defence Force would be tasked to forewarn people on natural disasters, get concerned authorities to swing into action, inform police or other authorities on emergency situations, make preliminary arrangements at an emergency site before help arrives and help evacuate people and transport them to relief camps in times of disasters.
