The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday, took suo motu cognizance of deaths caused by heat wave and, urged the Centre to declare the ongoing heat wave as a national emergency.
The state government told the court on Thursday that five deaths due to heat have been reported in Rajasthan.
The court held that the authorities have failed to take appropriate steps to protect the people from the heat wave.
"We do not have a planet B to which we can move onto...If we do not take strict action now, we will lose the chance of seeing our future generation flourish forever," the court reportedly said.
The court also directed the state government to earmark funds to propvide ex gratia to the next of kin of people who die due to heat wave conditions.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Friday accused the BJP-led government of suppressing the number of deaths caused by the intense heat battering Rajasthan while claiming that more than 100 people have died of heat stroke in the state.
According to PTI, the Congress' Rajasthan unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra alleged that the authorities are hiding the actual number under pressure from the state government to avoid paying compensation.
Dotasra on Friday claimed that "more than 100 deaths have occurred" in the state.
The BJP government, which has completely failed in managing the heatwave situation, is now committing the sin of hiding the death toll "to avoid paying compensation", he alleged.
"There is shocking information from SMS (Sawai Man Singh) Hospital in Jaipur where the bodies of about 40 unidentified people are lying in the mortuary after their deaths due to the heat wave. Every day, about 20-25 bodies of unidentified people are coming to the mortuary but, to avoid paying compensation, the bodies are being disposed of within three days by citing a different cause for the deaths," he was quoted as saying by the PTI.
The process of identifying the bodies, informing the families and publishing the information in newspapers takes about seven days, after which the bodies are disposed of, the Congress leader said.
"These figures are only of SMS Hospital. The situation in the entire state is horrific and worrying. The government is saying that only five people died due to the heat wave while the truth is that the number of deaths due to the scorching heat in the state is very scary," he added.
