Hyderabad, September 18: Only hours had passed when the news broke out that Nalgonda District Collector S A M Rizvi had contracted swine flu that State officials broke into a veritable frenzy to tackle the situation. Officials at the Health and Administration departments had started chalking out a possible recourse, when an order was issued for a meeting between all the District Collectors in the State, scheduled for Thursday. Hyderabad District Collector Naveen Mittal participated in the high level closed-door meeting with District Regional Officers, health officials and all the other Collectors in the State on Thursday afternoon.
While refusing to divulge specifics, sources at the District Collectorate indicated that the meeting, held via video conference centered on the issue of stepping up preventive measures against swine flu in the district.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) announced its plan to hold a meeting to review the status of swine flu and dengue in the district. According to a statement issued by the NDMA on Thursday, the meeting is being organised on an emergency basis on account of the number of deaths that have occurred due to both diseases in the Hyderabad district.
Member of the NDMA and MLA, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, who is presently on a visit to New Delhi reportedly wrote to Home Minister Sabita Indira Reddy and Health Minister Danam Nagendar on the need for immediate strategy formulation on the issue.
The meeting, scheduled for the time being for either on September 19, or 20, as per the developments till the end of the week would include all the public representatives (MLAs and MPs) in the district, along with officials to the review the present status of the outbreak. The meeting would also review the steps that have been taken so far and oversee the future course of action by the Government and the GHMC to tackle the issue.
—Agencies