URJA writes letter to Baijal to know preparedness amid repeated earthquakes

New Delhi: To know about the status of preparedness amid the series of earthquake tremors which has hit the city of Delhi recently, Atul Goyal, the President of United Residents Joint Action (URJA), an apex body of RWAs in Delhi, on Wednesday wrote a letter to Anil Baijal, Chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority. 

In the letter, Goyal emphasised on the need to pay attention to the principal laid in MPD2021. He brought the poor infrastructure of the under developed colonies into reckoning while stressing on the need to resurrect them in wake of the repeated tremors.

“Delhi’s more than sixty percent population live in under developed colonies, JJ Clusters, slums and even the old neighbourhood areas (Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Shahdra, Nazafgarh, Mehrauli with ancient structures) are on very high risk and prone to earthquake. We must not forget that Delhi is listed in 4 plus seismic zone and God forbid, if any tremor to the tune of 6 plus attacks the city, most of the structures which does not comply with the structural safety norms will get demolished by default, making huge loss of life to the city,” the letter read.

Goyal accused the Directorate of Urban local Bodies for failing miserably to monitor the structural safety plans as mandated under MPD2021. He wrote, “Such lapses do not match with the grading required of a Metro cosmopolitan city like Delhi and is termed as a highly compromised governance failure that brings bad name to city world over.”

However, Goyal also offered help in managing the current situation. He wrote, “URJA offer its services if asked for by the authority under your command to help monitor the implementation of structural safety norms in place by developing and engaging the professional civil engineers , architects , town planners as may be required to carry and deal with the urgency integrating with RWAs and MTAs at ward level.”