State administration gears up to tackle possible heat wave situation.

Surjit kumar Dhal, Bhubaneswar, March 27  : With global temperature rising high and last five years (2014-2018) witnessing hottest years, State Administration has been geared up to tackle possible heat wave situation during upcoming summer.

The State Level preparedness meeting to this effect was held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here on Wednesday.

Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi outlined the issues for discussion.

Considering the IMD predictions for current year and the experience of last years, the Chief Secretary directed the concerned departments to keep their response mechanism in all readiness to tackle any situation.

The meeting decided a slew of measures to deal with the heat wave situation.

The SRC said, “Institutional arrangement has been put in place for daily recording and prediction of heat wave situation. This year block and district wise temperature reading will be done. District level preparedness meetings have already been held in all districts and district level emergency rooms have been operationlized”.

Sethi placed the State Level Heat Action Plan ( HAP) for the year 2019 for discussion in the meeting.

Padhi directed the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department to keep all the tube wells and pipe water supply projects in running condition. The department was asked to keep strict vigil on repair and maintenance of the drinking water projects at filed level and undertake intensive awareness activities involving the NGOs and Civil Society Organizations.

Principal Secretary of the department Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh said, “Pre-summer repair and maintenance of drinking water projects have already been completed and presently all the projects are in running condition”.

Padhi further asked health and family welfare department to operationalize a special room in Government hospitals for treatment of sun-stroke and heat related diseases.

It was decided to keep all required instruments, ice packs, medicines, fans and air cooling systems etc in the sun-stroke management rooms of the hospitals.

Further, the Chief Secretary directed the Energy department to ensure uninterrupted power supply to drinking water projects and sun stroke management rooms in the hospitals. The respective departments were also asked to keep the generator sets ready at these points during the summer.

Energy Secretary Hemant Sharma appraised that in spite of increase in number of consumers, area coverage and quantum of electricity consumption; there would not be load shading during the top day and night hours.

The Labour Welfare department was asked to issue proper guidelines restricting outside working hours. It was decided that the outside working hours would be restricted from 11 AM to 3.30 PM from May 1 to June 15.

The schools would function from 6 AM to 10.30 AM so that students would reach their homes by 11 AM while the Angawadis would function from 6 to 10 AM and the AWC workers would finish their home visit works by 11 AM.

The Department of School and Mass Education was asked to ensure availability of ORS packets and first aid in the schools and Commerce and Transport department was directed to  issue necessary guidelines to the RTOs regarding regulation of public transport timings depending on heat wave warning situations.

The bus owner associations will be requested to keep safe drinking water, ORS and first aid in the public transport buses.

The issues relating to daily monitoring of temperature situation; early warning and communication through print, electronic, social and web media; prevention, construction of water vats for animals and birds, water ponds for wild animals inside the forests, preparedness and mitigation measures; execution of HAP, interdepartmental convergent working at filed level etc were discussed in the meeting and necessary decisions were taken for expeditious implementation.