Title - Late response upsets plans at many spots

NEW DELHI: It seems vital lessons were not learnt from the previous mock drill in the capital. Tuesday's drill saw a recurrence of the same problems seen last time: reaction time of ambulances wasn't anything to go home about, and the participants' approach to the whole exercise somehow seemed to mock the purpose of the drill. TOI was on the ground when it all happened.

At Saket

Three stray dogs at the J Block market were the most alert respondents when a 'mock bomb' went off. The participants, however, had to be reminded several times that they were supposed to react realistically. The drill started around noon, but volunteers had trickled into the market as early as 10am. Police reached the spot at 11.58am and were followed by ambulances at 12.06pm. The plan was to get the injured into ambulances and PCR vans; but things didn't quite go according to plan and errors, that could prove costly in a real disaster, were made.

Vital time was lost as the ambulance crew didn't know where the patients were supposed to be administered first aid. By the time the dog squad arrived at 12.10pm, and the mobile crime team arrived three minutes later, a crowd of curious and confused onlookers had encroached upon the bomb site, forcing the police to push them away and cordon off the area. Those playing dead victims were all smiles and could be seen posing for pictures during the operation.

Elsewhere at the Birla Vidya Niketan school, the scene was less comical, but efficiency was still missing. The scene was of building collapse, but cops arrived 20 minutes late. Senior officers, though, claimed the PCR wasn't alerted at 12pm, the time of incident. Nevertheless, all casualties-two dead and 11 injured-were evacuated by 12.45pm.

"There is always scope for improvement. We want to bring down the response time to 15 minutes and even less. We will check where the faults lie and work on them," said S K Gupta, SDM, Haus Khas.

The injured were taken to the nearby Modi Hospital, Max Hospital and MM Hospital in Malviya Nagar in both cases.

At Jhandewalan Metro station and Patel Nagar (West)

Volunteers wearing make-up at one end, and stretchers and securitymen at the other gave out early that a mock drill was happening at the Metro station. The make-up, in particular, amused a lot of people. Close to 100 volunteers from the civil defence department enacted the situation.

At 11.45am there were three cracker bursts to simulate a bomb blast. Volunteers started running out, screaming. Civil defence personnel brought in stretchers, and two CATS ambulances reached too. But only those with minor-looking injuries were attended to first instead of those feigning serious injuries; the rest were sent off to hospitals in autos. Fire tenders reached 20 minutes late; doctors arrived after the injured were sent off to hospitals.

At Patel Nagar (West) C Block RWA, volunteers simulated an earthquake scenario where 10 people had died and 40 were injured. "We called 1077 and 100 immediately. Within 10 minutes, almost all agencies reached the spot," said RWA vice president Anil Malhotra.

At Lotus Temple & Crown Plaza Hotel

The mock drill at Lotus Temple had almost gone unnoticed. A terror attack leading to a stampede had been simulated; but until the evacuations began, nobody knew about it. Tourists at the site seemed disinterested. At the prayer hall premises, evacuations began even before the participants playing victims had taken up positions. Three CAT ambulances that had been doing rounds since morning were quick to reach, but cops and firemen reached 15-20 minutes late. Some "dead" were evacuated first; others had to wait for up to 45 minutes.

At the Crown Plaza Hotel, guests treated the whole exercise as some entertainment prop. They were informed long before the drill happened, so at least 60 curious guests turned up. At 11.45am, a "gunman" came. An alert was sounded and all disaster response teams reached by 12.05pm.