Hyderabad: ITC’s Paperboards & Specialty Papers Business (PSPD), leading manufacturer of paper, paperboards and specialty paper in South Asia, has spearheaded several initiatives to lend support to the Government efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is working with the Telangana Government to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in the state.
As a part of its multidimensional interventions, ITC’s PSPD Bhadrachalam unit has distributed free meals and groceries to the needy in all the villages in the Burgampahad Mandal and the PSPD Bhadrachalam factory catchment area. This included free meals twice a day to 600 migrant workers and essential groceries to 150 truck drivers and cleaners from different parts of the country.
To ensure hygiene and health precautions, ITC PSPD distributed masks and hand gloves to truck drivers in Bhadrachalam and conducted awareness sessions for them on sanitization & cleaning of trucks. The company also disinfected around 18 villages around the Bhadrachalam factory.
To ensure the safety of health and sanitation workers who are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response, the Division donated sanitizers to public health workers in Secunderabad. Additionally, it has distributed 500 sets of protective accessories (Masks and Hand gloves) to the sanitation workers in Burgampahad and Bhadrachalam. The hand sanitizers were formulated as per WHO standards by the medical and technical teams at ITC’s Bhadrachalam unit.
ITC PSPD also supplied 150 isolation kits to the government hospital and is working in collaboration with the local administration to offer two free meals per day to over 300 sanitation workers in Bhadrachalam and Sarapaka. The company is carrying out food preparation for these workers in a controlled environment while maintaining all the necessary safety and hygiene precautions.
In its endeavor to make people aware of Covid19, the ITC has issued advisories to its employees and workers and is conducting awareness camps for communities near the factories of ITC PSPD and across several cities and districts in Telangana. ITC PSPD is working closely with local, State and National health care entities to conduct awareness programmes which emphasize the preventive steps to be taken, the need for enhanced focus on sanitation and periodic usage of sanitizers and hand washes while simultaneously highlighting the process to be followed to report any symptoms.
The sessions are held by a team of company doctors along with the concerned members from the Security and HR teams.
Mr. Vadiraj Kulkarni, Chief Operating Officer, Paperboards & Specialty Papers Business, ITC Limited, said, “To lend support to the Government’s efforts to fight this pandemic, ITC’s PSPD business has undertaken a series of interventions ranging from mass sanitization of villages, making protection kits available to the frontline workers and serving food to those in need. We will continue to do our best to make a meaningful contribution during these challenging times.”
ITC Limited is further augmenting the Government’s initiatives to handle the present health crisis through its WOW (Wellbeing out of Waste) program which is a Waste Management initiative by ITC covering 89 lakh citizens across the country and is focused on establishing an Efficient & Sustainable Collection, Sorting and Recycling model in the society.
ITC WOW team is extensively organizing awareness campaigns on the threat of COVID-19 in districts of Telangana (Siddipet, Siricilla, Bhadrachalam, Warangal, Mahaboobnagar and various other Municipalities) and Andhra Pradesh (Prakasam, Guntur, Nellore, Krishna, East & West Godavari, Chittoor, Vizag, Kadapa, Kurnool, and Ananthapuram). It is also undertaking door to door awareness activities in Kukatpally and KPHB colony local Market.
Some other notable initiatives taken by the ITC WOW team include the distribution of masks to approx. 1000 families in the local households, delivery of food packets to 1000 shelterless people, the supply of Savlon Sanitizers to the public health workers and essentials like water, buttermilk to the Police and medical staff personnel.
ITC WOW team also put in efforts to support the municipal workers in disinfecting the local community areas. The team with the help of ward Volunteers conducted special hygiene awareness programs with an emphasis on social distancing.
ITC’s PSPD has taken a slew of preventive measures to promote social distancing at the factory premises and public places inside the colony as well. These include activation of additional dining halls and distanced designated seating spaces to increase the distancing of managers in the factory premises Canteen, and the Administrative Block.
Ensuring availability of liquid hand-wash and sanitizers at all conspicuous places, designated boxes on the entrance to the factory to ensure social distancing, replacement of biometric punch process for capturing attendance with swipe cards to minimize contact with surfaces by multiple managers, cancellation of mass festival celebrations etc. are some of the other initiatives of the company to ensure highest levels of safety for its employees.