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National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering
(NICEE) at IIT Kanpur has conducted an inter school quiz competition
on Earthquake Tips, the final round of which was conducted on 26 Jan
2010 at Outreach Auditorium, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur,
Kanpur. This date also happens to be the ninth anniversary of the
fateful Bhuj Earthquake which caused a major damage in 2001.
A
need has been felt for long to include school children, who are the
future builders of the country, in the activity of furthering the
cause seismic safety towards ensuring an earthquake resistant built
environment in the country, which is also the mandate of NICEE.
There has been overwhelming response from the schools for
registering for the quiz. The registering schools were given 50
copies of “Earthquake Tips” by Dr. CVR Murty, to be used for
selecting a team of four participants from each school from Class
VIII to Class XI.
The quiz had four rounds viz. Round Robin, Picture
Round, Rapid Fire Round and Lucky number Round. The questions were
mostly from the publication “Earthquake Tips” by Dr. CVR Murty and
some questions were based on earthquakes which have occurred in
India and in other countries.
In the preliminary round 10 schools from Kanpur, 7
schools each from Lucknow and Allahabad, and 6 6schools from
Gorakhpur participated. The winners of the preliminary rounds viz.
Karam Devi Memorial Academy, Kanpur; Sir Padampat Singhania
Education Centre, Kanpur; Army School, Gorakhpur; Jagat Taran Golden
Jubilee School, Allahabad and City Montessori School, Station Road,
Lucknow participated in the final round held on January 26, 2010 at
Outreach Auditorium, IIT Kanpur.
The winning team of the final round, viz. Jagat Taran
Golden Jubilee School, Allahabad, was represented by Ms. Hemangi Das,
Ms. Arunima Singh, Mr. Pradyot Srivastava and Mr. Tanoy Banerjee.
The winning team scored 81 points. The team of Karam Devi Memorial
Academy, Kanpur represented by Ms. Stuti Verma, Mr. Ayush Sitholay,
Mr. Saurabh Singh and Mr. Gaurav Uttam came second scoring 70 points
while the team of Sir Padampat Singhania Education Centre, Kanpur
represented by Ms. Lovee Mehra, Mr. Vaibhav Bhasin, Mr. Siddharth
Dubey and Mr. Anmol Srivastava scored 64 points to bag the third
position. Gorakhpur team scored 59 points while the Lucknow team
scored 58 points.
A cash prize of Rs. 1000/- was given to each of the
participants of the winning team, while Rs. 750/- was given to each
participant of team which came second and Rs. 500/- cash prize was
given to each participant of team which came third, along with the
merit certificates. Participation certificates were given to teams
from Gorakhpur and Lucknow. The certificate and prizes were
distributed by Dr. Durgesh C. Rai, Coordinator of NICEE who was also
the Chief Guest of the function.
Dr. Rai welcomed the participants and thanked the
principals and management of the schools who participated in the
quiz during the preliminary rounds and the final round. He said that
a small candle which has been kindled in these young minds will
surely grow into a major fire and will make the community at large
aware about the damages due to an earthquake and the methods which
can be used to mitigate the damages. The participants were given a
brief insight into the working methodology of NICEE prior to the
commencement of the quiz.
Mr. SB Bajpai of KDMA appreciated the efforts of
NICEE to bring up an appropriate subject the word for which needs to
be spread to the community. He said that although science and
technology has seen quite a bit advancement in the last fifty years,
we have reached the moon, we can replace the heart, eyes and other
body parts, still there is no effective means by which the time,
place and intensity of an earthquake. It is therefore possible to
mitigate the earthquake damages through careful construction and
following the methods which are being aggressively professed by
NICEE.
Dr. KK Bajpai of IIT Kanpur while expressing the vote
of thanks to participants and their schools management advised the
participants that they can continue to interact with NICEE in future
also for any clarifications that they might need. NICEE will be very
happy to interact with them and clarify any queries they might have
in future. Dr. Bajpai also thanked the NICEE team consisting of Cdr
Suresh Ailawadi, Retd., Ms. Anamika Dikshit, Ms. Megha Singh, Ms.
Tanusri Mondal, Ms. Sandhya Sharma, Ms. Seema Kushwaha and Mr.
Malikhan Singh for making the event a success and an excellent
organisation of the event. The publications of NICEE were also
displayed for the benefit of participants.
Mr. Ayush Sitholay of KDMA Kanpur showed a model
which he had prepared to test the efficacy of buildings during an
earthquake. This goes to show that the young minds are aware of the
existing problem of the earthquake disaster and they will surely
work towards its mitigation. The efforts of Mr. Sitholay were
commended by all present.
Further, it is proposed to make this an annual event with the final round of quiz being held on 26 January every year to memorialize the devastating Bhuj Earthquake of 2001. It will be our endeavour to include more and more cities of Uttar Pradesh during the forthcoming years.