Nitish directs officials to prepare 'heat action plan' soon

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today directed officials to soon prepare a "heat action plan" and accordingly send advisories to districts to provide relief to citizens from the scorching summer.
The direction came at a meeting of state disaster management department in which factors like situation of fire related incidents, water table and availability of drinking water were discussed, an official statement said.
A standard operating procedure has been prepared for availability of drinking water during summer and routes for transportation of water through tankers and other means should be finalised immediately, Kumar said at the meeting.
The meeting stressed on issuing advisory to people not to cook food in the open between 12 noon and 3-4 PM to ward off threat of fire due to strong wind blowing during summer.

People would also be asked in advisories to avoid moving out of home and plying vehicles during this period.
The CM directed officials to issue advisory to fix working hour of labourers engaged in government projects, the statement said.

The meeting stressed that state level disaster management committee should sit twice in a week.
The review meeting also took stock of underground water and instruction was issued to get handpumps checked and carry out required repair, the statement said.
A detailed review of arrangements for dousing fire was also made.
Temperature has been escalating everyday in Bihar with mercury in Patna, Gaya and other places crossing 40 degree Celsius.