Environment
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Odisha sends health chiefs to flood districts
Times of India··23 Aug
On 22 August 2026, Odisha deputed four senior health officers to flood-hit districts after water began to recede. Special Secretary Bijay Mishra went to Balasore, Public Health Director Rabindra Mishra to Bhadrak, Family Welfare Director Rajendra Panigrahi to Keonjhar, and Health Services Director M. M. Panda to Jajpur. They left on Saturday morning to review field care.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If family members are in Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar or Jajpur, those are the four districts that received a named state health director on Saturday.
- Anyone returning to a house that stayed under water should note officials listed fever, diarrhoea, skin infections and snakebite as the watch list, not only drinking-water shortage.
- If you need medicine after the flood, the department said it is checking bleaching powder, halogen tablets, oral rehydration salts and anti-diarrhoeal stocks in the affected districts.
What's Happening
- The postings began after floodwater started falling, not during the peak rise, and the four officers began district reviews the same Saturday morning.
- Garg tied the move to prolonged inundation and said large-scale cleaning of villages, roads and public places would follow recession.
- Officials also named removal of animal carcasses and spoiled food as a sanitation step before wells and taps are treated.
Why Four Districts Got Health Directors First
- Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar and Jajpur were among the districts named in the earlier August flood spell on the state's northern rivers.
- The Health and Family Welfare Department is using existing district medical officers rather than a new flood-only agency.
- Keonjhar is also written as Kendujhar in some state notes, which is the same district assignment given to Rajendra Panigrahi.
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