Heatwave claims 16 lives in Telangana; govt announces Rs 4 lakh ex gratia

Heatwave has so far claimed 16 lives in Telangana officials said on Sunday as the state continued to reel under severe weather conditions with several parts of north Telangana recording temperatures exceeding 45 degrees CelsiusThe state government has confirmed 16 deaths in seven districts It announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh each for the families of the deceasedRevenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy who reviewed the situation due to intense heatwave conditions in the state directed the administrative machinery to remain alert and take immediate action to ensure no inconvenience to the publicWith the India Meteorological Department IMD warning that heatwave impact will intensify over the next three days he advised district collectors to exercise even greater cautionAmid rising temperatures and severe heatwave conditions across the state day by day the minister held an emergency review meeting with senior officials at the Secretariat on Saturday He reviewed districtwise reports on heatwave conditions and issued clear directives to the administrative machinery to work with utmost priority to protect peoples livesAs per the reports of district collectors four deaths occurred in Jayashankar Bhupalapalli district three each in Warangal Urban Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts and one each in Jogulamba Gadwal Rangareddy and Suryapet districtsThe officials explained that the intensity of the heat is reaching unprecedented levels due to the severe El Nintildeo effectThe minister asked officials to identify mandals and villages recording the highest temperatures in the state and send advance warnings to the people there create awareness about the heat through media social media and villagelevel announcements and ensure necessary information reaches the public every hourAccording to Telangana Development Planning Society 18 out of 33 districts recorded the highest temperature of 45 degrees Celsius and above on SaturdaySirpur in Kumaram Bheem Asifabad district was the hottest place in the state with a maximum temperature reaching 465 degrees Celsius Dharampuri in Jagtial district Gangadhara in Karimnagar Kasipet in Mancherial Yergatla in Nizamabad and three other places in Peddapalli Rajanna Sircilla and Suryapet districts recorded a maximum temperature of 464 degreesThe IMD has issued an orange alert for Komuram Bheem Asifabad Mancherial Karimnagar Peddapalli Jayashankar Bhupalpally Mulugu Khammam Nalgonda Suryapet Mahabubabad Warangal and Hanumakonda districts on SundayYellow alert has been issued for Adilabad KomuramBheem Asifabad Mancherial Warangal Hanumakonda Rangareddy Hyderabad and MedchalMalkajgiri districtsThe weather department said that thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty winds 4050 kmph are very likely to occur at isolated places in Nalgonda Rangareddy Hyderabad MedchalMalkajgiri Vikarabad Sangareddy Medak Kamareddy Mahabubnagar Nagarkurnool Wanaparthy Narayanpet and Jogulamba Gadwal districtsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever