At least 34 persons have died in the past two days in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh following health complications caused by an extreme heat wave. Most of the deceased were aged above 60 years.
Ballia’s Chief Medical Officer Jayant Kumar, while talking to local media persons, said that due to the extremely high temperature, people were being admitted to the District Government Hospital for treatment, with 23 deaths reported on June 15 and 11 on June 16. “Most of the people admitted had various complications,” Dr. Kumar said.
The whole of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous State, is reeling under a heat wave with temperatures ranging from 42 degrees to 47 degrees Celsius. Frequent power cuts have added to the misery of the people, forcing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to summon the State Energy Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma, the Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) M. Devraj, and other UPPCL officials, to the CM’s residence late on June 16 evening to express his displeasure over unannounced power cuts, and to direct them to fix feeder-wise accountability.
