AGARTALA / SHILLONG, Feb 12 (TIWN): Once again earthquake tremors were felt across Northeast on Sunday. Reportedly, mild earthquake, measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, rocked Meghalaya and its neighbouring states on Sunday, an official said. The tremor was felt at 9.35 A.M with its epicentre located in the state's East Garo Hills district, an official of the Regional Seismological Centre here said. There were no reports of any casualties or damage. This has generated panic across Tripura too as this is the 2nd earthquake jolt felt here. The last Earthquake’s epicenter was Tripura. Being in Himalayan region, Northeast State Tripura is facing high threats of earthquakes. On last 3rd January also, Tripura had shaken up with 5.7 Magnitude earthquake. On January 21, in a United States-Northeast states 2 day long workshop held at Pragna Bhawan discussion was held on ‘Good Engineering Practice in Construction’ for areas prone to earthquakes and landslides.

 But what surprises is that in that progaramme ULB Engineers / Junior Engineers/ CLTC personnel / Masons / Assistant Mason / ULB Engineers, Supervisors, Trainers at State Level / Beneficiaries etc.

It was said that the “Participants will be trained on good engineering practices for construction of houses in Northeast States):. But no one from Tripura PWD High Level Officials were present in that programme. During the discussion it was revealed that whereas Assam is doing a very well record in constructing earthquake proof buildings, but Tripura’s 45 % homes are not earthquake proven.

However, experts further urged all the states representatives to take basic initiatives to prevent earthquake damages, so that deaths can be prevented. But Tripura’s PWD High Officials since the begging was absent and also didn’t attend the programme on Saturday, which especially held on Earthquake.

Tripura Govt is just reluctant to comply with the safety direction to counter earthquake like natural calamity. Infact, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has decided to retrofit a hospital and a school building in Tripura considering a possible high intensity earthquake in Northeast. But asked the state govt to conduct a structural safety audit on existing constructions in the state before go for retrofitting he old buildings.

Whereas all state representatives actively participated in that workshop of January 21 to January 22, 2017 at Pragna Bhawan but Tripura remained cold in showing any activeness.

The seven northeastern states - Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - are considered by seismologists as the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world. The region experienced an earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale in 1897, that left over 1,600 people dead.