Govt to undertake safety audit of all buildings in city

SHILLONG: The strong earthquake which hit Shillong city on Wednesday evening creating panic among residents has once raised the big question of how safe the city and its people really are, in view of the presence of several tall and rickety buildings without the mandatory safety norms and construction of more sky rises following the amendment to the MUDA building bye laws by the State government.
The bigger question, however, is whether such concerns would end up only in debates or discussions on social or public forums or whether concrete action would be taken to mitigate any impending disaster in the wake of reports by geologists and seismologists about the possibility of a big quake hitting the North East region including Meghalaya which lies on the Seismic Zone V, the “very severe intensity zone”.
Immediately after a quake hit the city and the North East region in the early hours of January 4 this year, the State government had ordered audit of the buildings including life line buildings (read hospitals etc.) in the city.
Reacting to the quake which hit the city on Wednesday evening, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma himself said there should not be any more high rises in the city.
Speaking on the matter, East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner P.S. Dkhar said audit of some government buildings began a long time back. “We have started the audit with some old government offices and even some schools have also been audited,” he added.
Mentioning that audit of all buildings will take time, he assured that the audit teams will inspect schools, hospitals and hotels once the audit of the government buildings are completed.