Bhubaneswar: April 23: State government today announced ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50, 000 for each death caused by sun stroke and the compensation will be paid out of State disaster Relief Fund (SGRF).
While announcing this, Special Relief Commissioner said, ‘all deaths reported or published on the Media will go through an investigation process to get confirmed whether the cause of the death is due to heat stroke or not.
Till yesterday, 73 cases have been received as suspected heat stroke deaths, out of which 24 cases are investigated and two of these deaths have been confirmed as heat stroke deaths i.e. one of Angul and another from Bolangir.’ Also, the Government has written to the central government to consider heat stroke deaths as disaster.
Speaking on the drinking water issue, he said “After the CM’s meeting, Panchayatiraj department has taken a strong stance on the matter and strict action will be initiated against the Sarpanches if guidelines are not followed. We are also tracking the complaints and checking how many such complaints are being attended to. Leaves of all the concerned officials of the water supply department have been cancelled and all of them will be on duty round the clock till the time temperatures return to normal.”
Speaking on the Weather issue, Mohapatra said, “The temperature is likely to remain high as predicted by Met department and Government is prepared to handle the situation. Also, Government is asking the people to stay Indoors, especially between 11 am to 3 pm unless there is some urgent requirement.
