NEW DELHI: In the wake of the disastrous earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) held a meeting on Saturday to take stock of the preparedness and deliberated upon charting and augmenting the way forward, to prevent damage in case of earthquakes in the national capital. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Lt. Governor VK Saxena, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot and other officials. Since Delhi falls under the ‘High Damage Risk Zone IV’ on the seismic map of India, the meeting deliberated upon charting the way ahead.
Stressing that disasters do not give prior information before manifesting themselves, the L-G emphasised the need to be completely prepared to face any eventuality, even if it entails erring on the side of caution. Recounting the Gujarat earthquake that caused widespread destruction, Saxena said that Delhi needed to be fully prepared to handle any disaster and asked officials to start work on the retrofitting of all schools, hospitals, police stations and other critical offices and vulnerable buildings in the city to prevent any damage.
He outlined measures, such as identifying open spaces for rescue operations, earmarking hospitals in districts and subdivisions for emergency response, widening lanes and bylanes, establishing connectivity with the railway and telephone networks for communication in case of an emergency, and asked the officials to start working on those.
Officials said the “Aapda Mitra” scheme for enrolling and training disaster relief volunteers was rolled out in Delhi and 1,800 volunteers have so far been trained and enrolled. The prevalent situation of H3N2 flu, H1N1 flu and Covid-19 were also discussed at the meeting. It was decided that though not mandatorily, measures like masking, physical distancing, hygiene and sanitation need to be followed to the farthest possible extent, they said.
‘IDENTIFY OPEN SPACES, EARMARK HOSPITALS
The L-G outlined measures, such as identifying open spaces for rescue operations, earmarking hospitals in districts and subdivisions for emergency response, widening lanes and bylanes, establishing connectivity with the railway and telephone networks for communication, among others