Mumbai Traffic Police issues guidelines for its staff on field duty amid soaring temperature

Mumbai has experienced heatwave conditions in the past few days. Last week, Mumbai’s suburban Santacruz observatory recorded a temperature of 38.5 degrees Celsius while Navi Mumbai sizzled at 42 degrees Celsius.

With Mumbai experiencing a heat wave, the city’s Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) Pravin Padwal has issued a directive for the cops deployed on field duty. The directive, issued to all police inspectors in charge of traffic divisions across the city, states that traffic police officials above 55 should not be given field duty between 12 noon and 5 pm. Those officials who are suffering from chronic ailments like blood pressure and diabetes, or have undergone major surgeries will also not be deployed on field duty, according to the guidelines.

The directive further states that clean drinking water should be readily available to those serving on the road and a warden along with the traffic police personnel should be assigned for assistance.

Reports suggest that the guidelines were issued on Tuesday as the mercury is rising across Maharashtra.

Traffic police personnel have to stand on the road all year round. Their duty includes standing under the scorching sun in the summer as well. Therefore, these guidelines have been issued in order to ensure that the traffic police personnel are in good health and there is no untoward incident in the department due to the soaring mercury.

“Young and physically strong officials should be appointed for the duty in the afternoon. They should be assigned in pairs and wherever necessary, a traffic warden shall also be appointed along with them for assistance,” read the guidelines issued by the joint commissioner of police, Indian Express reported.

The guidelines further mention that in case of sudden chest pain, dizziness or other health problem, the concerned official on duty should immediately be admitted to the nearest hospital.

Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for Mumbai for Wednesday. IMD has indicated that the city may witness light to moderate rain accompanied by thunder, lightning and gusty winds on Wednesday and Thursday. This will likely bring some respite for Mumbaikars from the scorching heat.