Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today urged Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to take adequate measures to deal with earthquakes of magnitude eight and above in the state.
He wrote a letter to Mehbooba urging her to take personal cognisance of the matter and issue firm directives in this regard, an official spokesman said.
"Jammu and Kashmir is predominantly located in Seismic Zone five and our people had, as recently as, in the 2005 earthquake, suffered considerable losses," the Governor said in the letter.
The spokesman said noting the response of the administrative system to the September 2014 floods, the Governor expressed concern that, "We were totally unprepared on all fronts."
Vohra said the State Disaster Management Authority must take urgent and time bound steps for strengthening all possible structural or non-structural mitigation measures to reduce the risk of vulnerability in every part of the state, particularly the two capital cities and all the other densely populated high risk urban areas.
"Side by side, the various urban administration authorities, governmental and elected, shall need to strictly enforce a techno-legal regime to ensure earthquake resilient structural measures in every new construction, and, side by side, retro-fitting of all life-line structures, particularly hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, railway stations, airports and buildings housing important government offices," he said.
"Also, the capacity and capability of accident/emergency/ trauma centres shall have to be considerably enlarged, along with the provision of all required equipments and skilled manpower," the Governor wrote.
He said SDMA needs to hold an urgent meeting and prescribe a time frame in which each District Disaster Management Authority shall require to become prepared and functional.
"This should be followed by regular conduct of mock drills in schools, colleges and at various public places throughout the state, involving all stakeholders and the public at large.
This will help in identifying the gaps in our preparedness and thereby enable us to identify the measures required to strengthen our Disaster Management capacities," he said.
