PNS/
 
With rising temperatures, Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal on Wednesday said that the State Government has geared its machinery to tackle the heat wave.
 
Kaushal, who called a meeting to chalk out the heat wave action plan with the Metrological Experts, Deputy Commissioners, and Administrative Secretaries of Public Health Engineering, Power, Health, Forest, Disaster management, Irrigation and Water, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Urban Local Bodies, Animal Husbandry, Women and Child Departments, directed the concerned officers to take necessary steps regarding the same.
 
Directing the officers of the Public Health Engineering and Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Kaushal said that the first priority of the State Government is to provide clean drinking water to the people besides ensuring water for irrigation. Therefore, the departments concerned should ensure the availability of water and its proper use and also issue SOPs to the field officers. He also directed the officers to conduct fire audits of institutional buildings and hospitals in the state.
 
Kaushal directed the Deputy Commissioners to constitute special teams in the districts to check water thefts. Deputy Commissioners should hold a meeting with the officials of the concerned departments every fortnight in this regard.
 
The Chief Secretary directed the officers of the Health Department to sensitize the public to take precautionary measures to prevent any kind of seasonal flu. He further directed them to make adequate supply of ORS, IV fluids, life-saving medicines at all health institutions and ASHA and Anganwadi workers as per the suitability.
 
He also asked them to ensure essential drug stock in health institutions. All ambulances and other PHC vehicles should be kept in roadworthiness for referral of patients. The institution heads must ensure the provision of power backup during power cuts, he added. In the meeting, Health department officials ensured that adequate arrangements of beds have already been made in case of emergency situations.
 
Directing the officers of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, he said that they should continuously monitor the impact of heat waves on seasonal crops, while directing them to issue advisories from time to time to the farmers and appraise methods of irrigation.