The Delhi High Court on Tuesday has sought response from the Centre & the Delhi Govt to explain their plan to deal with natural calamity i.e. earthquakes and how they are going to implement the same.
A two judge bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi & Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar directed “All Commissioners of MCDs , Chairman of NDMC, Delhi Cantonment Board, Vice Chairman DDA, and the Chief Secretary of GNCT Delhi to file affidavits explaining what is their plan to deal with earthquake and how it is to be implemented on urgent basis, within one week”.
The Court will hear the matter on June 15.
The Court has also directed to make citizens aware of the precautions that have to be taken and the action plan of govt and comply with directions passed earlier in the matter.
“Earthquake will kill lakhs of citizens, some seriousness has to be shown. Mere paper work will not solve the imminent threat citizens of Delhi are facing due to heightened seismic activity,” said the Delhi HC.
The Courts direction came on an application filed by Advocate Arpit Bhargava seeking urgent direction to the Govt & it’s authorities to act in a time bound manner and apprise the court about the steps taken and intended to be taken/ preparedness in case major earthquake strikes Delhi in near future.
The application has been filed in the pending Public Interest Litigation related to seismic stability of buildings in Delhi & how safe are residents of Delhi in the event of an earthquake striking Delhi.
“The petitioners are compelled to file the application in the wake of almost 11 earthquakes striking Delhi -NCR from 12th April till 4th June & recorded by National Centre of Seismology,” stated in the application.
As per the Delhi High Court previous orders in August 2015, the court had noted “that about 10 to 15% of Delhi Building’s comply with the Building Code and regulations which are specific for Seismic Zone IV. The rest of the buildings are non-compliant. This is an alarming position and there is a disaster waiting to happen”.
The authorities did not complied with the directions of the Delhi High Court despite repeated warnings. In May, 2019, the court had warned of Contempt Proceedings for non compliance of Orders against all the concerned officials of Delhi Government, as well as the highest officials of MCD, Delhi Development Authority, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi Cantonment Board & other local authorities.
Following which, in Dec 2019, the Court had granted final opportunity to present the detailed Action Plan & had directed the Chief Secretary of Delhi Government to remain present in Court. In fact, Delhi has witnessed many low frequency earthquakes in the past several months, at the same time when its dealing with Coronavirus pandemic, burden on the health sector has been doubled. The ground reality about the preparedness towards natural calamity i.e. earthquakes should come up before the public.
-India Legal Bureau