The recent wave of earthquakes has prompted the state government to beef up disaster preparedness.
The Meghalaya director-general of civil defence and homeguards, W.R. Marbaniang, said there was a significant increase in the state’s level of preparedness to deal with disasters, earthquakes in particular.
He said additional chief secretary W.M.S. Pariat had recently convened a meeting to operationalise the centres in all the seven districts of the state. These centres would act like control rooms for the districts.
Marbaniang said even before the earthquakes, from 2006, the civil defence and homeguards had begun training around 31,000 personnel as medical first responders for search and rescue operations.
These personnel improvise on locally available materials like bamboo and blankets to make stretchers to carry injured persons in case of any eventuality.
The state government will constitute a technical committee to review the granting of permission to construct buildings and structures. It will be authorised to dismantle all the structures that do not conform to the building bylaws. The decision came after frequent earthquakes in the state.
An official source said the government was concerned over the highrise structures in Shillong, which may add to the misery of people if a major earthquake strikes. Officials of the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority said experts could review and give permission to construct buildings and structures in accordance with the bylaws framed by the government.