There is a disaster-prone State having frequent landslides, forest fires, cloudbursts, flash floods and earthquakes, etc. Some of these are seasonal and often unpredictable. The magnitude of the disaster is always unanticipated. During one of the seasons, a cloudburst caused devastating floods and landslides leading to high casualties. There was major damage to infrastructure like roads, bridges and power generating units. This led to more than 100000 pilgrims, tourists and other locals trapped across different routes and locations. The people trapped in your area of responsibility included senior citizens, patients in hospitals, women and children, hikers, tourists, ruling party, regional president along with his family, additional chief secretary of the neighboring state and prisoners in jail. As a civil services officer of the State, what would be the order in which you would rescue these people and why? Give justifications.
What the examiner wants
Decide and justify the order of rescue among varied groups trapped in a disaster.
Demand-wise check
- 1Principles: vulnerability and urgency of threat to life, not status; equality before law; triage≈50 words
- 2Order: hospital patients and critically ill → children, women (especially pregnant), senior citizens → tourists and hikers in highest-risk zones → prisoners (state's custodial duty; with security) → VIPs and officials treated like others≈50 words
- 3Practical: risk assessment, simultaneous rescue where teams allow, NDRF coordination, communication≈50 words
- 4Resist pressure: political party president and senior officer not prioritised by rank≈50 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Where marks usually go
- Prioritising VIPs or forgetting prisoners
- Rigid order without saying rescues can run in parallel
Draw this
- Triage pyramid with groups placed by vulnerability
Value addition
- EventThe Kedarnath floods (June 2013) needed a huge multi-agency rescue, including the IAF's Operation Rahat, one of its largest helicopter relief operations.IAF, 2013
- ThinkerRawls's difference principle supports giving priority to the most disadvantaged.John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 35 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 31 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 35 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 39 ↗Same syllabus reference
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