In the wake of the 13/7 serial bomb blasts in the city,Ganesha mandals have asked government agencies to train them in disaster management. In a first,the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mumbai Police will train them to effectively manage disaster situations and large crowds that throng pandals through the 11-day festival. Officials from the disaster management cell of the civic body have prepared a disaster management and mitigation training module that will be taught to various big and small Ganesha mandals at a day-long workshop to make then capable enough to be the first responders during an emergency situation. The training will also include Fire Brigade officials,police officers and members of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS). The first such workshop will be held on Friday and about 150 mandals have already signed up for it. The training focuses mostly on dealing with fire and terror situations,managing crowds and avoiding stampedes at the time of a disaster,rope rescue,first aid,handling casualties on stretchers,effective and speedy extinguishing of minor fires etc. Girish Walawalkar of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvaya Samiti said about a week ago,they requested the BMC to come up with a training programme. Just because Ganesha mandals have not been hit by a major fire or a terror attack so far does not mean we should rule out the possibility. We need to be prepared to respond during a bomb blast,control panicky crowds during a bomb hoax,control a fire from spreading etc, he said. BDDS officials will train volunteers on how to handle bomb hoaxes,how to isolate suspected bomb with gunny bags etc. The BMC will also put up banners stating dos and donts during a disaster at all mandals. BMCs Chief Disaster Management Officer Mahesh Narvekar said the idea behind the workshop is to equip certain number of volunteers from every mandal who know what exactly needs to be done during a crisis situation. With so many oil lamps,small fires keep breaking out in pandals. We will request all mandals to keep small fire extinguishers,adequate number of first aid kits etc. Moreover,pandals on smaller roads are at a risk since it takes quite some time for the Fire Brigade to reach such spots. Fire-fighting training can help in such time, said Narvekar.
