On shaky ground

What if Delhi had been hit by a major earthquake on Sunday night? The mild tremors that were reported practically went unnoticed.

What if Delhi had been hit by a major earthquake on Sunday night? The mild tremors with a magnitude of 4.1 on the Richter scale that were reported practically went unnoticed in the city and its neighbouring areas. Delhi could afford to be placid about this one. But for how long? Everyone knows that the national capital sits on a seismological faultline. Everyone also knows that East Delhi and the Chattarpur Basin are the most disaster-prone zones, But has the city’s preparedness in case of a natural disaster been taken any further beyond the mapping of hazard zones?

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Experts have been regularly sounding out the warning that sooner or later, Delhi will witness an earthquake of high magnitude. The Disaster Management Act, 2005, provides for an action plan, with a clear chain of responsibilities from the national to the local level, to undertake a coordinated and prompt response to any calamity. The National Disaster Management Authority, as well as its Delhi counterpart, were set up in the interim. But the main problem lies in the implementation of its policies. The Delhi government’s incompetence on this front was visible in the two-year-long delay by the MCD in the very procurement of equipment for earthquake relief. The task of purchasing Rs 10 crore worth of equipment was eventually handed over to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. But is there a task force trained and ready to use this equipment?

Then there is the question of the citizens. They need to be given clear-cut pre-disaster instructions about coping with the immediate aftermath of collapsed houses and hospitals, destroyed roads, injured and dead people, no potable water or electricity. There was a time when civil defence wardens who would assume responsibility for dealing with a disaster. Today no one knows who is in charge. Delhi’s political class, of course, remains unifocal, bothered only about how to save illegal constructions. Lots needs to be done and remains undone, and in the meanwhile the country’s capital city continues to tempt fate.