The Jorhat district administration has asked the tea garden managements to play a more proactive role to control diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases which are threatening to assume an epidemic form in several tea gardens and adjacent areas in the district. In a marathon meeting held at the conference hall of Jorhat District Rural Development Agency here today, Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Ms LS Changsan stressed the need for maintaining a high alert against gastroenteritis during the next five months. Representatives of the 86-odd Jorhat-located tea estates, Assam Tea Corporation Limited and Assam Chah Majdoor Sangh, Health and Public Health Engineering officials, Jorhat Assistant Labour Commissioner, Additional Deputy Commissioner Ms Aruna Rajouri and other government officials attended the meeting which addressed all healthcare-related issues in the tea gardens in the district. Dr BC Bhagowati of State Directorate of Health Services, who has been deputed by Dispur for diarrhoea management in Jorhat, and Dr Ajit Das of UNICEF, Dibrugarh, were also present at the meeting. The Jorhat Deputy Commissioner stated in clear terms that the tea managements should provide clean drinking water and improve hygiene and sanitation facilities in their respective gardens. She also asked them to coordinate with the nearest public health centres to keep tabs on diarrhoea. Changsan called for monthly feedbacks from the tea garden managements. The gardens have been advised to collect the list of requisite medicines to tackle water-borne diseases and malaria from the Jorhat Joint Director of Health Services and stock these. The Jorhat Deputy Commissioner asked the managements to form garden-level task forces comprising tea garden executives, welfare officers and representatives of labour bodies to monitor the situation arising out of the outbreak of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis. Significantly, the meeting also focused on the need to bust the liquor dens flourishing in the tea gardens and adjacent areas. It identified country-made liquor as a potential cause of diarrhoea. All government and other physicians on the rolls of tea gardens have been asked to work on a war footing to control the spread of water-borne diseases. The meeting addressed the issues of blindness control and immunization vaccines for the tea gardens.