Bhubaneswar, May 31 (IANS) Following several sunstroke-related deaths in Odisha’s Sundargarh district, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Satyabrata Sahu on Friday issued an advisory urging people not to venture out from 11 am to 3 pm.
SRC Satyabrata Sahu urged people to avoid going outside during the peak hours of the day between 11 am to 3 pm for the next three days to avoid any eventualities due to severe heatwave conditions, especially in Western and Central Odisha.
“I advise the people of Odisha to not go outside from 11 am till 3 pm as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that severe heatwave conditions will prevail during the next three days in western and central parts of the state,” SRC Sahu said while addressing a press meeting.
Sahu said that the administration will be forced to take action against anyone found carrying out any activities by violating the instructions, be it any government department or private agencies, under the Disaster Management Act.
He said that the Sundargarh district has reported sunstroke deaths of 12 persons while six cases of sunstroke deaths have been reported from the Jharsuguda district.
He said that a post-mortem is being conducted in each of the cases to know the actual cause of the death.
He stated that in most of the alleged heatstroke death cases reported, the victims were labourers and truck drivers. The SRC also noted that a separate team has been sent by the Health Department to probe the heatstroke death cases in Rourkela city of Sundargarh district.
Sahu said mercury has crossed 40 degrees Celsius at 19 stations where the temperature is recorded in the above parts of the state. Out of these, at 12 places the temperature even crossed 44 degrees Celsius. The mercury touched 47 degrees Celsius along with high humidity in the Jharsuguda district on Thursday.
The IMD, Bhubaneswar has intimated that the heat wave situation may continue for the next five days.
–IANS
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