Odisha Gears Up To Tackle Heat Wave

Bhubaneswar: Taking note of the gradual rise in day temperatures in Odisha, the state government has formulated an action plan to tackle the heat wave.

This was revealed at a high-level meeting presided over by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said according to the action plan formulated by the Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA), control rooms at the district, sub-division and block level will remain open from April 1 to collect information about the heat wave casualty. The control rooms will remain open till June 15.

Instructions have been given to all government hospitals to make special arrangement for the treatment of heat stroke patients. Apart from this, the hospital authorities have been directed to keep the 108 and 102 ambulance vans in readiness to admit heat stroke patients in the hospital.

Apart from this, the hospital authorities have been asked to keep adequate stock of ORS packets in case of emergency, the SRC said, adding that steps will be taken to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all government hospitals during the peak summer.

He said the meeting unanimously decided that no construction and other physical work will be undertaken between 11am to 3.30pm from April 1 to June 15. Besides, plying of passenger vehicles during the period will also be regulated, he said.

To bring down incidents of heat stroke, the health department will hold a review meeting with district officials through video-conferencing at regular intervals.

For the field visit, nodal officers at the state, district and block level have been identified. These officials will oversee the measures taken at hospitals and collect information about any heat stroke-related casualty.

To make people aware of the heat wave conditions, the department will send messages through radio to apprise them of the preventive measures, the SRC said.

He also said that the chief secretary directed the director, State Institute of Health & Family Welfare (SIHFW), to disseminate dos and don’ts about the heat wave up to the block level through the web-based system and directed the revenue and health department to collect information on heat stroke-related matters from all government health and non-health agencies and jointly probe into reports on heat stroke deaths in the media.