Unit of Civil Defence

• 02 Nov 2022

Why In News?

On November 1, 2022, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while reviewing the fire department, civil defence department and prison department in Lucknow, directed that civil defense units will be formed in every district of the state.

Key Points

• The Chief Minister said that the Civil Defence Department has played an important role in maintaining peace, harmony and security in the society and for this reason, keeping in view the importance and utility of civil defence, it will be extended to all the 75 districts of the state.
• It is to be noted that at present civil defence units are formed in 27 districts of the state.
• Reviewing the fire department, civil defence department and prisons department, he directed that civil defence units should be restructured considering all urban bodies of the state as the basis.
• In this way, more than seven and a half hundred civil defence units will be functional in the state. Necessary financial incentives will be provided by the state government for smooth implementation of new units.
• The Chief Minister said that the state cabinet had recently approved its new jail manual and it would prove to be an important effort towards prison reforms. Concerted efforts have to be made to establish prisons as better centres of improvement. Examples from 'open prison' and 'high security prison' can be useful in this regard.
• The Chief Minister directed that a list of prisoners lodged in all the jails of the state for more than 14 years should be prepared and made available and the list should also contain separate details of sick, minor and women and differently-abled prisoners.
• He said that the fire department needs to be established as a disaster management and emergency service and the model 'Fire and Emergency Bill' of the state should be prepared on the lines of the central government's model 'Bill on Maintenance of Fire and Emergency Service-2019'.
• He said that in accordance with the policy of Ease of Doing Business, self-certification system should be implemented by the building owner at an interval of every six months, provision of fire safety officer according to the type of buildings and the system of annual third party audit should be implemented.
• He said that efforts should be made to set up a special fund for the safety of firefighters and availability of high-level firefighting equipment and try to make more and more cities safe cities by making financial management through convergence with inter-departmental coordination.