Delhi needs to put a State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) in place as other states to deal with situations such as earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided on Saturday. Chaired by Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in attendance, the DDMA also reviewed the prevalent H3N2, H1N1 flu and Covid situation in the city but decided that measures such as masking up in public places were not required to be made mandatory just yet. The meeting saw the L-G, CM and other officials concerned discuss the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria before taking stock of the city’s preparedness for such an eventuality as it falls under the ‘High Damage Risk Zone IV’ on the seismic map of India. “Since the housing pattern in Delhi is not in accordance with the building codes, it makes the residents extremely vulnerable in the event of an earthquake of even relatively higher magnitude,” the L-G said. “It is further compounded by the fact that approaches of these colonies are extremely narrow, making the movement of people and vehicles almost impossible in cases of such disasters,” he also said. Raj Niwas said that the L-G called for the retrofitting of all schools, hospitals, police stations, other critical government offices and vulnerable buildings especially in the ‘Special Area’ and old Delhi localities, according to the Earthquake Resilient Building Code. The Chief Minister stressed the need to compile and tabulate all reports/recommendations of different committees constituted from time to time regarding the mitigation of disasters and their after-effects to chart the way forward in this regard. Kejriwal also underlined the need to make government offices like the Delhi Secretariat and Police Headquarters earthquake-resistant through retrofitting. Saxena called for identifying open spaces across Delhi for rescue operations in the event of an earthquake, hospitals at the level of every district and sub-division for emergency response and the broadening of narrow lanes and bylanes to ensure access for ambulances, fire tenders and rescue teams in the event of an emergency. It was also decided to put in place a State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) like in other states, which Delhi does not have at the moment, at the earliest. “H3N2 flu incidences are on the rise. We must be ready to face the challenge,” Saxena said. With regard to addressing the rising H3N2 Flu and Covid cases, it was decided that masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene and sanitation, and preparedness of hospitals needed to be followed “to the farthest possible extent” but these will not be made mandatory at the moment.
