Why is Guwahati a recipe for disaster?

Disasters claim 46 till October this year

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 23: Guwahati looks like a disaster area and one of the reasons behind this metropolitan city being a recipe for disaster is lack of precautiory measures or alertness on the part of the stakeholders. Apart from artificial floods and landslides, fire incidents are the major ones among the disasters in the city where as many as 46 lives were lost till October this year.

Till October this year, there were as many as 536 incidents of fire in the city, leading to damage in most of the cases. The maximum incidents of fire occurred in places under the jurisdiction of the Panbazar Fire Brigade. It is followed by Chandmari with 103 incidents, Dispur with 55 incidents, Lokhara with 55 incidents, Pandu with 49 incidents, North Guwahati with 31 incidents, Sopur with 19 incidents and Chandra with eight incidents. There were fire incidents in the city in November and December as well. The death of as many as 46 people in the city due to various disasters in ten months till October is a matter to be taken seriously.

According to sources in the Firefighting and Emergency Services, Assam, most of the fire incidents occur in the city due to lack of precautiory measures. Sources said that most of the high-rise buildings in the city have no fire-fighting devices. Many schools and hospitals in the city also do not have firefighting devices. Even in many government officials, the firefighting devices have been lying defunct.   

The authorities concerned have much to do if they are they really interested to check the ever-increasing disasters in the State.