Jammu, Jan 19: “Raising Day” celebrations of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were organised at SDRF Battalion Hqrs Gandhi Nagar Jammu as well as at SDRF Bn Hqrs Barzulla, Srinagar on Thursday. The “Raising Day” of the SDRF is celebrated every year after the erstwhile Auxiliary Police was renamed as State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in 2012.
As a part of celebrations of its 11th Raising Day this year, the department held the main function at its Gandhi Nagar Battalion Headquarters where Dr B. Srinivas, IPS, DGP/Commandant General Homeguards/ CD/ SDRF graced the occasion as the chief guest. He was received by Umesh Kumar, IPS, DIG Homeguards Jammu who gave a detailed briefing about the preparations made by the department for the Raising Day celebrations, a police spokesperson said in a statement.
In his welcome address, DIG Homeguards gave an appraisal of achievements and contributions made by the SDRF last year. Later, the DGP accompanied by other officers had a round of the preparations made on the occasion and inspected the rescue equipment which were kept on display.
“On the occasion, while lauding the role of personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Commandant General HG/CD/SDRF mentioned that officers and men of SDRF have done commendable roles during different rescue operations and other operational commitments in the recent past particularly during cloudburst at the holy cave, evacuation of patients during fire incident at B&J Hospital, rescuing 27 members of nomadic families trapped in snow in Shopian, saving lives of two persons from 20-feet-deep well at Kupwara, rescuing 11 persons during flash floods in Ujah river at Kathua and also helped the administration in evacuating the injured persons besides retrieving the dead bodies of labourers during tunnel collapse at Khooni Nallaha,” the statement said.
Giving a resume of its contributions, he informed that SDRF has undertaken over 350 rescue operations, and 50 mock exercises/drills in addition to over 500 awareness camps/demonstrations in different parts of the UT last year. He also mentioned that under the Aapda Mitra programme, over 1500 volunteers across the UT were given training by the SDRF personnel.
Expressing satisfaction over the work done by the personnel of SDRF, the Commandant General informed that two officers of SDRF were awarded President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service, 15 were awarded DGP Medal/Commendation and 06 others were awarded DG CD’s Disc & Commendation Certificate during the year 2022.
A similar function was organized at SDRF Hqrs Srinagar where Firdous Iqbal, JKPS (SSP), Director Homeguards was the chief guest. Wasim Qadri, SSP, In Charge Commandant SDRF 1st Bn Srinagar and all other officers and men of the Battalion at Hqrs were present on the occasion.
