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| Earthquake exposes Govt’s disaster management | | | Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 27: The powerful earthquake, which shook J&K on Monday, has exposed the state government’s poor disaster management.
There are reports of government’s failure to introduce a comprehensive disaster management policy that could minimize loss of life and property during a natural disaster.
After the deadly earthquake of 2005, experts were asked to chart out a comprehensive disaster management policy by then government. But its implementation on ground, even after 10 years, remains a distant dream.
Government sources said the disaster management policy was approved by the PDP-BJP coalition regime four months after assuming office this year. However, there has been no forward movement over its implementation till date.
A recent survey by an independent agency in J&K has revealed that a majority of the government and private buildings in the state are unsafe and could be flattened if a major earthquake hits the state.
As per the study, there are hospitals, nursing homes, schools, hotels, government offices including the two civil secretariats at Jammu and Srinagar which are unsafe and unreliable during earthquakes. There is surprisingly, no retrofitting and earthquake proofing done in these buildings.
“Such a non-serious approach by the government has taken the state towards the brink of turbulent times wherein human lives which could have been saved by timely action would be lost,” a senior official told Early Times.
He said the floods of 2014 have made various structures in Kashmir valley weak and brittle, and with the looming threat of earthquakes, such buildings could cause more damages.
Further, there is no action into the approval of the process by virtue of which review and implementation of building codes/land use code and amendments to the Town Planning Act, Land Use Zoning Regulation, Development Control Regulations & Building by-laws to bring in earthquake risk mitigation could be ensured.
There are also various questions which the quake of Monday has raised. It has raised the question on the credibility of government’s claims of having a functional disaster management system in place.
As the traffic for hours got halted on Monday after the dreadful tremors, it exposed government’s claims of having the capacity to handle the disaster. The traffic jams were witnessed for hours with roads jam packed, giving tough time to both the vehicular as well as the pedestrian movement.
Had there been any fatal injuries due to the earthquake, how would have government cleared the way for ambulances? Had any building collapsed, how could rescue team reach to the spot?
What has come to fore during the earthquake on Monday is the poor response of the administration towards such emergencies. It is the traffic mess, building norms, contingency teams and plans, quick evacuation squads, central disaster management command and communication unit wherein government has terribly failed.
It is possible that the people of the state would survive future earthquakes but if the government continues to remain inactive over implementing disaster management policy, loss of lives could become inevitable.
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