With an average of 72 persons succumbing to sunstroke annually since 1999 in Orissa, the state government has asked the Centre to include heatwave in the list of calamity relief fund (CRF) in order to help the victims' families.
"We have been demanding inclusion of heatwave and lightning in CRF list. The demand was earlier made before the 13th Finance Commission. The same demand is made again to enable poor victims families to get adequate ex-gratia," said Revenue and Disaster Management minister SN Patro.
While a sunstroke victim's family now gets Rs10,000 from district Red Cross, Rs1lakh could be given if heatwave was included in the CRF, he said.
Expressing concern over the rise in the sunstroke casualty figure, the minister said most of the victims belonged to poor and BPL category.
However, they could not get adequate amount as ex-gratia as the heatwave did not figure in the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF).
As many as 2042 people died of sunstroke in 1998 followed by 81 deaths in 1999, Revenue department sources said adding that the number of human deaths due to heatwave per year hovered around 72.
A total of 2787 people have died in sunstroke between 1998 and 2009.At least 53 people have succumbed to sunstroke till April 20, 2010, they said.
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