Foreign

Heatwave Deaths Stir Row in India’s Uttar Pradesh

By Web News 765

Officials in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are investigating dozens of deaths that some have attributed to a heatwave.

Between Thursday and Saturday, 54 deaths were reported in Ballia district, around 274km from state capital Lucknow.

A district health official who said heat could be a cause was transferred, sparking a political row.
The state government later set up a panel to submit a report on the deaths.

Temperatures in several parts of Uttar Pradesh have ranged between 42C and 47C in the past week. The government has advised elderly people to stay indoors.

In neighboring Bihar state, local media reported that more than 40 people had died due to heat since 31 May, but the state government has not confirmed the number.

Bihar’s additional chief secretary of health, Pratyaya Amrit, did not respond to the BBC’s calls and messages. Dr Umesh Kumar, the official in charge of Bihar’s disaster control room, told BBC Hindi that he had received reports of around 15-16 deaths in the state and could give more details later in the day.

The controversy in Uttar Pradesh began on Friday after Diwakar Singh, chief of Ballia district hospital, told reporters that around 25 people had died, and that heat may have been a factor.

“Most of the patients were above 60 and had pre-existing ailments. These were exacerbated by the heat and they were brought to the hospital in serious condition. They died despite being given adequate treatment and medicines,” Dr Singh said.

A day later, he was transferred from the post. Brajesh Pathak, the state’s deputy chief minister, said that Dr Singh’s statement was “careless” but added that the government was taking the situation “very seriously”.

He said two senior officials had been sent to investigate and report on the incident.

“Those who have lost their lives are poor farmers because they did not receive food, medicines and treatment on time,” former state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav alleged.

Heatwaves are common in northern India, especially in May and June, but experts say they have become more intense and frequent and last longer.

BBC/Adebukola Aluko

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Crime

Two Gang-rape, Set Ablaze Minor in India

By Web News 906

A minor was allegedly gang-raped and set on fire by two men has died in hospital, Police told AFP Tuesday.

The 16-year-old girl belonged to Dalit, the lowest rung in the Hindu caste system who suffer disproportionately high levels of sexual violence in a country with high rates of crime against women.

Her death on Monday came less than a week after two Dalit sisters, aged 15 and 17, were found hanging from a tree after being allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered by six men.

Both incidents took place in the poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to about 230 million people, where similar crimes regularly make headlines.

In the latest case, the girl from a rural area was allegedly attacked by two men and set on fire early this month.

She was shifted to a hospital in the state capital, Lucknow where she succumbed to her injuries.

“We arrested the accused within two hours of the incident being reported and assured the family of proper follow-up action against the perpetrators,” local police chief Dinesh Kumar Prabhu told AFP.

Prabhu said police had since been deployed around the girl’s house “to check any untoward incident”.

In previous cases, low-caste families have been threatened or attacked to stop them from testifying.

Activists say police often fail to take seriously accusations made by the marginalised community and that they lack recourse to legal representation.

Last year the Uttar Pradesh authorities’ swift cremation before an autopsy of a Dalit rape victim murdered by an upper-caste Hindu man triggered widespread outrage.

Nearly 32,000 cases of rape were reported in India in 2021, according to government figures, but many more are thought to go unreported.

Culled/ Titilayo Kupoliyi

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Foreign

India Tuk-Tuk Crammed with 27 Passengers Seized

By Web News 602

When police in an Indian town stopped a speeding tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw), they were surprised to find how many people were crammed into the small vehicle.

A video showing 27 people, including children and the elderly, disembarking from the auto-rickshaw in Fatehpur has gone viral on social media.

It shows a policeman counting each passenger as they exit the vehicle.

An auto-rickshaw can generally carry three people, but some are modified to seat up to six passengers.

The incident involving the overcrowded vehicle has been reported from Fatehpur, a town in India’s most populated state of Uttar Pradesh.

According to media reports, when police tried to flag down the autorickshaw for over-speeding, the driver tried to speed away. Police then chased it down and forced it to stop.

The police were “shocked to see over two dozen passengers inside”, Rajesh Kumar, superintendent of Fatehpur police, told the Times of India newspaper.

The autorickshaw has been seized for violating the speed limit and for overloading.

On social media, videos of the incident have been watched tens of thousands of times and many Twitter users have posted rib-tickling comments in response to the visuals.

Some said the incident was deserving of a “world record”, while others used it to make a point about India’s inadequate transport facilities.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon