Mandals to get security training

Mumbai: In order to avoid any untoward incident during festivals and to ensure security and safety of devotees, the Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation’s disaster management unit will be conducting workshops for Ganesh mandals on
dealing with disaster situations. The workshop will be held on Sunday at Saraswati Baug, Jogeshwari.

Representatives of around 100 ganesh mandals across the Mumbai are expected to attend the workshop. The mandals will be trained to tackle disaster situations, which includes response in case of fire, bomb hoax call, rumors of terror attack etc. Along with this, the training will also update them about types of fires and fire extinguishing measures, crowd management and handling any untoward situation.

Director of the BMC disaster management unit, Mahesh Narvekar said, “Representatives from each mandal will be attending the workshop. They will be majorly trained for fire safety and response mechanism in case of disaster or any untoward incident”.

The workshop for ganpati mandals will be conducted in Jogeshwari’s Saraswati Baug municipal school from 9.30 am to 5 pm. The other authorities involved in workshop will be Mumbai Police, Bomb Detection & Disposal Squad (BDDS), Mumbai Fire brigade and doctor from Life Support Institute of Health Sciences.

“There can be disaster like floods due to heavy rainfall, terror threats etc. Training will be provided to the mandal representatives who will further train and update the mandal karyakartas abo-ut the same. We expect around 100 mandals to participate in the workshop,” said Brihan-mumbai Sarvajanik Ganesho-tsav Samiti president, Naresh Dahibavkar.

On the lines of high alert in the city, the samanvay samiti has also communicated to the mandals on how to respond if any unidentified object resembling bomb is spotted which can cause security or terror threat. Members from the BDDS will train volunteers on how to handle bomb hoaxes, how to isolate suspected bomb with gunny bags and so on.