KSU: Quake drills in schools & colleges

SHILLONG, MAY 3: With sixteen tremors above 5 Richter scale rocking the state in last four months leading to speculations that Meghalaya might experience an earthquake of bigger magnitude, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) on Tuesday felt the state government must organise mock drill exercises in educational institutions and the public places as part of its preparedness to deal with such tremors.

KSU delegation led by its general secretary Auguster Jyrwa and education secretary Donald V Thabah met the Principal Secretary in-charge Revenue & Disaster Management PW Ingty to discuss the concern.

“We have demanded that such mock drills must be organize more so in educational institutions involving both the students and the staffs,” KSU education secretary Donald V Thabah told reporters after the meeting.

He also mentioned the recent mock drill initiated by the Deputy Commissioner and the Chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority, East Khasi Hills District in collaboration with the CSIR-NEIST in several localities of Shillong involving a public, school and hospitals.

He said this is important exercise as it will increase the level of preparedness of schools and colleges, which faces the usual problem of congestion.

“Moreover most of the schools don’t have emergency exits and if a natural disaster like earthquake strike, it may lead to huge causalities,” Thabah said. According to him, the government and the educational institutions should consider having emergency exists in place.

While admitting that level of preparedness is not up to the mark, Thabah said, “Though mock drills are held but the government authorities failed to involve the public in this exercise.”

He said the public remained just as bystanders and onlookers of the mock drills even as he felt that such exercises should be carried out on a large scale involving the general public from all walks of life.

When asked, Thabah said the principal secretary welcomed the suggestions and assured that he would take up the issue in a meeting to be held soon.-By Our Reporter