Governor N.N. Vohra attended the 55th Raising Day of Home Guards & Civil Defence (HG & CD), here today. On his arrival at the Gulshan Parade Ground he took the salute and inspected the parade.Emphasizing the importance of valuable relief and rescue work being done by the HG & CD in J&K, Governor observed that ever since its inception in 1962 this Organisation has been providing crucial assistance to the Administration in dealing with varied arising emergencies-floods, earthquakes, management of festivals and other important events.Governor lauded the role being played by this Organisation to assist the Police in maintaining Law and Order, traffic regulation, fire fighting, evacuation of injured persons. He observed that consequent to the establishment of the two Battalions of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) HG & CD Volunteers had been providing valuable support in the regulation of Shri Amarnathji Yatra. Considering the crucial tasks to be attended by the SDRF in very difficult situations, Governor stressed the urgent need to enlarge the strength of highly trained volunteers and urged the State Government to raise more SDRF battalions for deployment in the Jammu, Srinagar and Ladakh regions.
Noting that the Jammu and Kashmir regions fall in seismic Zones-IV and V, respectively, and are vulnerable to natural disasters particularly earthquakes, Governor re-iterated that there is no substitute to SDRF being assisted by large numbers of well trained volunteers who are equipped with state of the art machines and gadgets to effectively deal with arising exigencies. He appealed to the youth to come forward and volunteer for offering their services for the cause of humanity. Governor congratulated Sh. Dilbagh Singh, Commandant General, on the Raising Day of the Home Guard and Civil Defence Organization and urged the Administration to enlarge and strengthen this important Force.Governor took salute of the marching contingents of the Home Guards, Civil Defence, SDRF, Trained Volunteers, Central Police Brass Band and Armed Police Pipers.On the occasion, the Fire Fighting Rescue Bikes were launched. These Bikes have been inducted in the Organisation to enable it to promptly reach the affected areas and render timely help. The Volunteers demonstrated their preparedness in dealing with emergencies through a well conceived demonstration which showed their skills in handling an earthquake situation. Sh. Dilbagh Singh, Commandant General HG/CD & SDRF presented the Welcome Address and highlighted the functioning of the Organisation. Smt. Rashmi Wazir, Commandant SDRF 2nd Battalion gave away the Vote of Thanks on the occasion. Sh. Kavinder Gupta, Speaker Legislative Assembly; Sh. M.Y Tarigami, MLA Kulgam; Dr. Krishan Lal, MLA Chhamb; Dr. S.P. Vaid, DGP, Sh P.L Gupta, Chief Vigilance Commissioner; Major Genl. Nilendra Kumar, ADG NCC, J&K; serving and retired civil and police officers and dignitaries from the civil society were among those present on the occasion.