Chandigarh, May 29 -- With the Centre directing five border states to hold mock drills on Thursday, Punjab said it will conduct the second civil defence exercise, "Operation Shield", on June 3 as their civil defence volunteers are currently under training by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Punjab civil defence special director general of police Sanjeev Kalra told HT, "Our best volunteers are currently under training by the NDRF. They are the best volunteers who will further train other volunteers. It would have been futile to conduct the exercise without our main volunteers. Mock drills are important. We requested for the drill to be postponed, which has been agreed. We will have a detailed mock drill across Punjab on June 3...