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Civil Defence was firstly established in India on 24th
October 1941. It was enacted by Parliament on May 1968 as Civil Defence Act 27 of 1968.The policy of the
Government of India till the declaration of emergency in
1962 was confined to making the States and Union
Territories conscious of the need of Civil Defence
measures and to ask them to keep ready Civil Defence
Paper Plans for major cities and towns. 2(two) events of
major significance which gave fillip to Civil Defence in
India, took place since independence. The first, which
really marked the revival of Civil Defence in the
Country, was the Chinese aggression in November, 1962.
The other was the Indo-Pakistan conflict in September
1965, when, for the first time after Independence, the
nation was subjected to enemy air attacks. This led to
considerable rethinking about the policy and scope of
Civil Defence and as a result the Civil Defence policy,
as it exists today, was evolved. The country was
subjected to further hostile attacks from Pakistan in
December 1971 when the Civil Defence Organisation
performed its duties commendably. Since then, as per
policy, the revision and renewal of categorised towns is
being done at regular intervals, the basic criteria of
categorisation remains the threat perception.
Upto 1985, all Civil Defence Preparedness were
restricted against threat of conventional weapons. During
1985, revision of list of categorised Civil Defence Towns,
preparedness against nuclear threat to a very limited
extend was considered by the Ministry. The zones/town so
identified against nuclear threat have been categorised as
Category I-A Civil Defence Towns. Civil Defence is to be
organised as an integral part of the defence of the
country. The scale is to be such as the nation can live
with it on long term basis. It is to be appropriately
augmented as and when the situation worsens.
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