A meeting for preparedness and Multi-State Exercise Awareness Campaign committee meeting was held at Chandigarh today to discuss magnitude 8 Mandi Earthquake Scenario in which senior officers of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana participated.

Kuldeep Singh Gangar, Resource person, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) presided over the meeting.

It was decided to hold Mega Mock Drill at Shimla, Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula on 15th February, 2013 at various locations like Bus-Stands, Colleges and Schools etc. in order to make people aware about the safety measures to be taken during and after the earthquake/disasters.

R.S. Saxena, National Coordinator, NDMA, New Delhi revealed that a scenario had been developed by the NDMA and scientific experts in the field of earthquake engineering with assistance from IIT Bombay and IIT Madras for mitigating a hypothetical earthquake of magnitude 8 with its epicentre in Sundernagar in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh. The extent of shaking and consequent damages have been predicted for these States and UT of Chandigarh.

The meeting was convened by Mohammad Shayin, Deputy Commissioner Chandigarh. Ms. Kanchan representative of NDMA for Himachal Pradesh, Manas Dwivedi, H.P. State Coordination Officer, Shri V.S. Kamal, Incharge Disaster management, H.P. Secretariat, Shri N.D. Badhan, Joint Director, Information and Public Relations and Shri M.L. Azad Joint Director, Elementary Education Himachal Pradesh were also present on the occasion.