At least 61 people have died in three districts of Bihar as a blistering heatwave swept several places in the state, officials said on Sunday.
Thirty people have lost their lives due to the swelteringheat in Aurangabad, while 20 have died in Gaya and 11 in Nawada district so farsince Saturday, Disaster Management Department’s Principal Secretary PratyayaAmrit said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed grief over thedeaths due to “loo” and heatstroke in the three districts, and hasannounced a payment of Rs four lakh as ex-gratia to the next of kin of thosekilled, an official release said.
State capital Patna registered a maximum temperature of 45degrees Celsius on Sunday, eight notches above normal, the Patna MeteorologicalCentre said in a bulletin.
On Saturday, the city recorded a maximum temperature of 45.8degrees Celsius, the highest for June in the past 10 years.
Gaya witnessed a high of 44.4 degrees Celsius, whileBhagalpur recorded 41 degrees Celsius, both the readings well above the normalfor this time of the year, it said.
Meanwhile, the heatwave conditions prevails in most parts ofthe country.
Sultanpur, Varanasi and Basti in UP recorded 45 degreesCelsius, 44.2 degrees Celsius and 44 degrees Celsius respectively.In Delhi, traces of rain and strong wind reducedthe daytime temperature which settled at 36.3 degrees Celsius, three notchesbelow the normal. Parts of Rajasthan witnessed rain since Saturday, bringingrespite from the sweltering conditions.