Madhya Pradesh reels under heat wave, nine dead

By IANS

Bhopal : Madhya Pradesh continued to reel under intense heat wave conditions Monday with temperatures hovering between 40 to 45 degrees Celsius in different parts of the state. At least nine people have died due to heat stroke and dehydration.


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Most of the victims were beggars, the homeless and people working in the open. The state meteorological department said temperatures would remain between 39 to 44 degrees Celsius for the next two days.

Six people died in Gwalior alone on Sunday, while one each died in Raisen and Damoh districts. A teacher in Bhind district had died of heat stroke Saturday.

Gwalior recorded a high of 44.8 Celsius Monday followed by Rewa at 44.5 Celsius, Satna at 43.8 Celsius and Jabalpur at 42.8 C.

"The state might get some respite from the scorching heat soon as the monsoon has advanced to Bihar now," said D.P. Dubey, director of the met department.

He added that some parts of eastern Madhya Pradesh may witness scattered showers in the next two days, but people are not ready to trust the department's predictions.

"How can we trust the department when predictions made by it in the past have mostly gone wrong," asks Pradeep Kumar, a vendor.

Dubey added that measures were being taken to reduce the margin of error in weather forecasts.

"The central meteorological department is establishing an automatic weather system at 127 places in the country for more accurate weather forecasts. This system has been installed at four places in Madhya Pradesh – Bhopal, Gwalior, Hoshangabad and Indore on a trial basis," he said.

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