Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Dec 23: Jammu and Kashmir may be prone for disasters but that does not seem to move the authorities.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed some major natural disasters in the past ranging from high magnitude earthquakes to devastating floods, series of avalanches and landslides. It also witnessed major fire incidents over the years.
But on ground, no efforts are being made how to deal with such tragedies.
Take for instance, the government earlier this year asked the Deputy Commissioner's (DC's) and Chairpersons of District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to identify major life line buildings in their districts and conduct their fire safety audit within one month.
"All DCs and Chairpersons of DDMA shall identify major life line buildings, including important offices, hospitals, shopping mall centres schools, colleges and universities within their districts and ensure their fire safety audit," reads the order.
However, hardly anything has been done in this regard. "The order was issued but nothing has been for its implementation," a source said.
The source said that fire safety mechanism depends on nature and construction of the building.
He said while doing fire safety audits, the number of floors, nature of construction and height has to be taken into consideration.
It is worth mentioning that top educational institutions have no fire safety mechanism in place, admitted the official.
The government has laid down the new special operating procedures for the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to deal with disasters. However, the official said it still awaits for implementation.
The Governor as per the source took a serious note in the meeting about ill-equipped SDRF in the state. The sources said that new SOPs were necessitated as various shortcomings were witnessed in the previous SOPs during floods in Kashmir.
For the restoration of public infrastructure, the deputy commissioners as per the source were directed to sanction works for temporary restoration as per SDRF guidelines and norms.
The divisional commissioners were told to monitor the working of the district committees on quarterly basis to review the provisions under disaster management plans, and capacity building.
An official of Disaster Management Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, said that there were norms for construction of buildings to resist disasters.
"Norms may not have been followed in construction of buildings. We have written to the Divisional Commissioners to hold fresh audit of buildings so that we could strengthen them for disasters," he said.
"In the first phase, the audit has to be conducted in hospitals, educational institutions, and various other government offices," he said.
"Even audit has to be conducted in private buildings and government will provide all possible help to ensure they resist the disasters."
Another official of Disaster Management said that there was urgency to carry out audit of all government buildings. |
