Governor N.N Vohra, has urged Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to take personal cognizance and issue firm directives to each and every stakeholder to forthwith start preparing for dealing with an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude and above.
In a letter to the CM the Governor has re-iterated that J&K is predominantly located in Seismic Zone V and our people had, as recently as, in the 2005 earthquake, suffered considerable losses. Noting the response of the administrative system to the September 2014 floods the Governor expressed concern that we were totally unprepared on all fronts.
The Governor has urged the SDMA must take urgent and time bound steps for strengthening all possible structural/non-structural mitigation measures to reduce the risk 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.(Agencies)
