May 28, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25,1424

HYDERABAD (India) May 27: At least 430 people have died from sunstroke and heat exhaustion in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in the past eleven days, officials said on Tuesday.

“So far 430 deaths have been reported to us by our district officials,” D.C. Rosaiah, state relief commissioner, told AFP.

Rosaiah said the actual toll could be higher since not all sunstroke deaths were reported to the government.

The extended hot spell has seen temperatures cross the 50 degrees Celsius mark. Media reports said the temperature hit 52.1 degrees Celsius in the northern town of Kottagudam on Monday.

The temperatures are about five to seven degrees Celsius above normal.

The worst-hit areas have been two coastal districts, East and West Godavari, some 500 kilometres east of the provincial capital Hyderabad, which have seen 126 sunstroke deaths, officials said.

The toll is expected to climb further, with meteorological officials warning that heatwave conditions are likely to persist for another week.

“The severity of the heatwave has come down in some areas. However, there are several pockets where the heatwave conditions persist and that could continue for at least another week,” said C.V.V. Bhadram, director of the Hyderabad Meteorological Centre.

“The government is doing its best to educate people on the precautions to be taken to avoid sunstrokes,” Rosaiah said.

In some districts, officials are handing out replenishing salts to travellers, he said.

The government has announced a payment of 10,000 rupees (214 dollars) to families of the victims, if they are below the poverty line.

Dust storm: A severe dust storm in northern India has killed 19 people, including seven children, and injured scores of others, an official said on Tuesday.

The victims died when they were buried under houses which collapsed in the storm over the weekend in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, of which Lucknow is the capital.

“Because of the intensity of the storm, the shack houses were swept away,” said M.D. Swami, Additional District Magistrate of the worst hit Aligarh district.

Electricity, water supply and telephone services were disrupted.—AFP