However, the state government confirmed only six deaths till Saturday morning while describing twenty seven of these deaths as ‘deaths due to other reasons’. 

 Final reports are yet to arrive from the districts so far as the remaining seventeen deaths are concerned.
“Though we had received 50 reports of heat wave deaths from different districts by Saturday morning, only six have so far been confirmed by the Collectors as sunstroke deaths. Twenty seven have died due to other reasons while final reports on seventeen deaths are still awaited,” the control room at the revenue department which is monitoring the heat wave deaths said.

Of the six confirmed deaths, three have been reported from coastal Angul district. Three other coastal districts of Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur have recorded one confirmed sunstroke deaths each. The death figures are expected to go up further as the state usually experiences heat wave in the month of May. However, this year it has already started from mid-April.

The sudden increase in the  heat wave related deaths have prompted the state administration to initiate several steps including early closure of schools for summer holidays.

However, the interior districts are expected to reel under the heat conditions.

SCORCHED

New Delhi, PTI: The north felt the onslaught of the blistering heat today as the mercury hovered near the 45-degree mark in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh while it claimed two lives each in Jharkhand and West Bengal. The weather office declared a “heat wave” in Gujarat with temperatures over five degrees above the normal range. A low-pressure trough in Andaman Sea brought a slight respite to eastern India.