Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is ill-equipped to face the summer heat. While temperatures have touched record levels in March itself resulting in deaths due to sunstroke, there is no coordinated effort between various departments on tackling the heat in the peak summer months of April and May. The State Disaster Management Authority has only come out with a “heatwave action plan” and circulated it to all district collectors without initiating concrete measures for ensuing its implementation strictly. Over 50 heat-related deaths have been reported in the last week.
Heatwave action plan remains only on paper
Last year, nearly 520 people in Telangana had succumbed to heatwave related illnesses. Nalgonda and Khammam districts were the worst hit.
To prevent recurrence of such incidents, the government came out with a ‘heatwave action plan’ for the first time earlier this month, informing citizens about extreme heat conditions and the necessary steps to tackle it.
The action plan’s primary objective is to alert those most at risk of heat-related illness when extreme heat conditions either exist or are imminent and to take appropriate precautions and to involve Revenue, Health and other departments to help people. The plan was devised along the lines of Gujarat and Odisha. But it remains only on paper. The State Disaster Management Authority, headed by the Chief Minister is yet to take stock of the situation in this regard.
