New Delhi [India], March 12 (ANI): Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, along with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, on Wednesday chaired the meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to assess the hazard vulnerability and risk assessment of the national capital, among other things.
Delhi CM and LG also reviewed the earthquake preparedness plan, urban flooding, and extreme heat events and the related state heat action plan 2025.
Notably, the LG is the Chairperson, and the Chief Minister is the Vice-Chairperson of the DDMA.
According to the sources, the DDMA was extremely underequipped in terms of infrastructure, manpower, and technology, and Delhi was one of the few States in the country without a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) of its own.
The LG directed officials to make land available as soon as possible and requested the CM address the logistics issues that had been neglected by the previous government.
The NDMA was asked, and it agreed to provide all necessary technological support in renovating and restructuring the DDMA and setting up the CCC.
Delhi is vulnerable to earthquakes owing to its location in Seismic Zone-IV, and the recent earthquake on February 18, 2025, made a comprehensive mitigation and prevention strategy imperative.
Moreover, microzoning of areas in the city presented a picture in which most of the densely populated colonies along the Yamuna, North, North-West, and South-West Delhi fell in highly quake-probable areas.
These areas housed most of the unauthorized colonies, wherein the structural safety of four–to five-storeyed houses on extremely small plot sizes was flagged as a matter of grave concern.
Apart from this, the issue of heat waves and the resultant hardships faced by the people, as well as flooding during monsoons, being taken up at the level of the DDMA itself, underlined the importance attached to these core infrastructural issues by the new regime at the helm.
Held much in advance of the forthcoming Summer and subsequent Monsoon seasons, the meeting deliberated upon preventive, curative and emergent measures concerning various aspects that included availability and distribution management of water, desilting of drains and sewer lines, drainage management, installation of requisite equipments, etc. as far as extreme heat and flooding were concerned.
Regarding earthquake preparedness, the meeting deliberated on retrofitting hospitals and identified school buildings for immediate relief, fire stations, gas, water, power supply lines, and Metro.
Large-scale retrofitting, especially in unauthorized colonies, with active public participation to make buildings earthquake-resistant and deployment of civil defence, home guard and disaster relief volunteers in the event of an earthquake were also discussed in the meeting.
Regarding the Summer Heat Action Plan 2025 and flood management, the LG and the CM asked officers to present a comprehensive plan of action within a month and have it ready for implementation well in advance.
Those present in the meeting included Chief Secretary, Commissioner of Police, HOD and Member (NDMA), Divisional Commissioner, DG (Fire & Civil Defence), GoI and top officials of NDRF, DDA, MCD, NDMC, PWD, Power, Health, Education Departments, DDMA and Delhi Jal Board, amoong others. (ANI)
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