As Mercury Climbs, 6 Home Guards On Poll Duty Die In UP, 17 Hospitalised

The unprecedented heat wave across north India has cost the lives of dozens including that of six Home Guards who were on election duty in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. There have been reports of multiple deaths in Rajasthan as well, though the official figure is five.

RB Kamal, the Principal of Mirzapur Medical College, said six of 23 Home Guards admitted to the hospital have died. All of them were admitted with various complaints  including high blood pressure, heart problems and other diseases. Currently, the condition of two jawans is critical.

"Twenty-three people have been sent to us so far among whom one is from Fire Service and one from civil police. There were 20 jawans from the Home Guard. Six jawans have died. Two are critical," he said.

Asked about the symptoms, he said they were brought in with high-grade fever, high blood pressure, high blood sugar. "They have a high chance of brain stroke, which could be fatal," he said.

Over the last week, as temperature across north India shot onto unprecedented levels, unconfirmed reports of multiple deaths of homeless people have been flowing in. Unidentified bodies have been piling up in morgues and in many cases, postmortems reports are awaited to confirm the cause of death.

The situation got so alarming that yesterday, the Rajasthan High Court took suo motu cognizance of deaths and urged the Centre to declare the ongoing heat wave as a national emergency.

The court also directed the state government to pay compensation to the victims' families and issued several guidelines to the government to provide relief to the people.

Among other things, the court directed the state government to sprinkle water on roads, mark out shaded areas and distribute water, ORS and cooling drinks like mango panna.

Labourers, cart and rickshaw pullers should be allowed to rest between noon and 3 pm, the court said. Heat alerts should also be sent through bulk messages, print and electronic media to caution the people.

In Rajasthan's Kota, 27 unidentified bodies came in for cremation last week. Two newborns died at a hospital in Kota's Sukhet, where the cooler was not working in a 10-bed ward. The parents have alleged the babies died of heat stroke.

Three deaths were reported from Alwar, two from Jodhpur, one from Jaisalmer, four from Barmer, four from Jalore and five from Bundi  last week. Most of the bodies were found outdoors and it is suspected that they died of heat exposure.

One of those who died is a personnel of Border Security Force. The BSF has not confirmed it as a heat-related death.