Even as high magnitude earthquake shook Nepal and many parts of India on Saturday, the Haryana Government seems to have not woken up to disaster management despite the State being highly disaster prone.
Neither the State disaster management plan nor the district disaster management plans have been finalised in Haryana. Not only this, the Haryana State Disaster Management Authority has not met even once in the past several years.
Official sources said that although the National Disaster Management Authority had approved the State disaster management plan of Haryana, the State Government was asked to incorporate some necessary measures and recommendations into the plan which is still in process, delaying the finalisation of the mandatory plan.
Apart from this, not a single district disaster management plan (DDMP) has been finalized by the Haryana Government so far.
All 21 districts have their DDMPs drawn up and ready but the concerned authority -Haryana Institute of Public Administration is in process of finalising these plans before it is sent for Chief Minister’s approval, informed the sources.
The negligence on part of the Government can also be gauged from the fact that the Haryana State Disaster Management Authority headed by Chief Minister has not met even once in past several years. As per the rules, the State Authority has to meet at least twice a year.
After the formation of BJP-led Haryana Government in October last year, Chief Minister Manohar lal is yet to convene a meeting of the Authority.
Notably, Haryana falls in the seismic zone IV, III, & II and the region is vulnerable to earthquakes.
Although, in recent past, no major earthquakes have occurred in the State, yet tremors have been felt whenever there is an earthquake in the Himalayan foot-hills.
Strong tremors were felt in various parts of Haryana following the massive earthquake-an intensity of 7.9 on Richter scale that had hit Nepal on Saturday.
According to the hazard profile /report with Haryana State Disaster Management Authority, in the last decade, towns of Faridabad and Gurgaon being its proximity of Delhi have grown up in the major residential-industrial towns whereas the town of Panchkula has emerged as a major residential city of the State. And, all of them are falling in earthquake zone IV.
As a result of this, an unplanned development which is not corrected and mainstreamed by means of preparedness /prevention/mitigation measures pose a greater challenge if an event occurs.
Also, a majority of inhabitants in Haryana and sectoral agencies involved in mainstream development are not aware of the existing studies, hazards, risk and vulnerability and therefore are not in a position to undertake suitable measures for preparedness and mitigation, it stated.
As per the report, the state experiences gusty winds, dust storms and thunderstorms during March to June. And, floods have been a recurrent phenomenon in Haryana from time immemorial. Many part of the State of Haryana are prone to flooding.
In flood manual of Haryana, there are 102 vulnerable points in the State which need special attention during monsoon.
The disaster management plan acts as a guide for the higher authorities to manage a calamity. Under the plan, the State machinery has a certain set of regulations that are pressed into motion when a disaster strikes.
Besides, it also works on pre-disaster and post-disaster management, covering different kinds of contingencies including fire, earthquakes, accidents, industrial mishaps, epidemics among others.
In the year 2012, two mild earthquakes with epicenter in Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh were reported in Haryana.