Shimla, Apr 24 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Response Force has bagged the top position in the national level ‘Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue’ (CSSR) competition organised by the National Disaster Response Force in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad.

The competition held from April 21 to 23 involved multi-hazard scenario of an earthquake response and the teams were expected to secure the site, search and rescue victims using advanced equipment and then relocate them to a medical facility, an official statement issued here on Thursday said.

The Himachal team comprising 18 members from Shimla, Mandi and Kangra companies came first during the North Zone competition and then went on to win the national competition beating seven other teams from states including Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Nagaland, and Daman and Diu.

During the national level competition, the Himachal SDRF team improved upon its qualifying time of North Zone competition, beating Uttarakhand team which came second and Andhra Pradesh team which got third positron.

The award ceremony event that was to be held on Thursday in Delhi to be chaired by the Union home minister was cancelled late Wednesday evening.

“Winning this prestigious trophy despite being one of the youngest SDRFs in the country has encouraged us to keep improving our capabilities through better training and equipment,” said Arjit Sen Thakur, SP, Himachal SDRF.

Himachal Pradesh falls into seismic zone 4 and 5 and there is possibility of an earthquake in the state, he said and added that having well trained and well equipped team “enhances our response capabilities in such situations”. PTI BPL KVK KVK