It was just a mild tremor on Wednesday evening however it’s impact could be earth shattering with far more grave consequences in future if the State government doesn’t wake up to the reality that Jharkhand still lacks a comprehensive disaster management plan.
The tremor that measured 6.0 on Richter Scale at the epicenter thankfully did not cause loss to man and material here but it gave rise to panic waves forcing people to run for cover. The tremor was felt due to an earthquake around 60-km off the coast of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal.Ironically, the disaster management department appears to be casual in its approach which is evident from the fact that after 14 years of its creation the State lacks a comprehensive plan despite a disaster management committee in almost all districts of the State. A State disaster managment plan is governed by rules framed by the central government which covers the kind of calamity to be covered under a disaster management plan.
“We are moving towards a State disaster management plan. But right now there is no such plan,” admitted Minister of Disaster Management, Mannan Mallik Even the plan to set up Jharkhand Disaster Response Force (JDRF) is moving at snail’s pace. As many as three teams of JDRF with each team comprising about 100 personnel was planned to be created for three districts of Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad.
“There is a lot of hurdle in its (JDRF) way. It has to get clearance from Finance department. Moreover, file stucks at all level,” confided Mallik.
Notwithstanding a Disaster Management Committee (DMC) in all districts, including Ranchi, disaster managment is still a far cry. A DMC sits at the top and is supposed to manage through other administrative units--Blocks, Panchayats and Municipal Wards-- under its command. But the Committee has been left to manage disaster at its own level in cooperation with community.
“What a district administraion can do with limited resourcesIJ They have little resources to manage,” maintained Mallik.
The DMC at Ranchi failed to evolve a disaster managment plan for the capital that required a comprehensive profiling of all municipal wards with suggestions for various committees at the ward level to carry out relief and rescue work in the aftermath of a disaster. The district committee has gone into hibernation since 2011 when it had asked ward councillors to submit Urban Risk Reduction plan mentioning demography, types of construction and dwelling units, various types of maps, roads with dimensions, hospitals, contact numbers of the people trained in rescue work among other things.
“I submitted the plan in 2012 but nothing happened. They (District Administraion) did not even ask for a plan in last one year,” said councillor of Ward-8, Sujata Kacchap.
Although Jharkhand is ranked moderate among sesimically prone zone (Zone-II) the tremors that shook the city on Wednesday is a harbinger of a quake of higher magnitude that the city may experience in future. Geologists claim that the stable plateau is witnessing changes underneath the surface due to hectic construction activities. The rock that makes the plateau is crumbling thus aiding waves to travel from one region to another at a greater pace. The changes in the seismic zone ideally means a greater involvement of agencies in the disaster management effort and changes in building byelaws to reduce the risk to lives in the event of a quake.
“This was the most powerful tremor to hit the region so far. The fact that the waves of the quake which was just 6 on Ricther Scale was so effective hudreds of kilometres away from the epicentre is not a good sign for the State,” said Geologist Nitish Priyadarshi.But attitude seems to be another hurdle in the way of charting out earthquake centric disaster management plan. For a State like Jharkhand earthquake figures lower on the list of disasters that gives prominence to droughts and mining accidents.
“We are a bit lethargic on this (earthquake centric plans),” said Disaster Management Specialist, Colonel SK Shrivastava.