HYDERABAD: The Telangana government submitted its action plan before the Hyderabad High Court stating that it has formed a committee comprising senior officials of various departments to prepare a comprehensive plan on the lines of heat wave action plans of Gujarat and Odisha to avoid sunstroke deaths in the state.
Following the court direction, the Telangana government submitted its action plan. Setting up several summer shelters with cool water and medicines, adjusting working hours to avoid getting exposed in the hot sun during the day were some of steps mentioned in the Telangana heat action plan.
On earlier occasion, the Andhra Pradesh government sought some more time for submitting its plan of action for mitigating sufferings of the people due to heat wave conditions. The court expressed dissatisfaction over the latter’s inaction in this regard. It directed the AP government to immediately come up with its summer action plan.
A division bench of the court comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice P Naveen Rao was dealing with a PIL filed by P Srisailam of Ranga Reddy district complaining inaction of the respondent governments in taking appropriate measures with regard to people’s sufferings due to heat wave conditions.
The bench is expected to review on Monday the steps being taken by the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments for protecting the lives of the people due to prevailing heat wave conditions in both the states.
Petitioner’s counsel K Sravan Kumar urged the court to direct the government to prepare action plan to mitigate heat wave conditions and to grant compensation and employment to the kin of the victims who lost their lives due to heat wave. The governments of Odisha and Gujarat have been successful in taking several measures to prevent heat wave deaths, he pointed out.
The bench then directed both the state governments to come up with an action plan for taking preventive steps. Both Gujarat and Odissa governments have succeeded in their efforts to bring down heat wave deaths drastically in their respective states.
