At least 33 polling workers in India have died of heatstroke in the state of Uttar Pradesh on the last day of voting in parliamentary elections. This was told to reporters by the head of the state election commission, Navdeep Rinva.
According to him, this number includes election commission employees, orderlies and security guards. “Families of the victims will receive cash compensation of 1.5 million rupees (18,000 USD)”, Rinva said.
On June 1, the seventh and final stage of parliamentary elections took place in India. Voters could vote in more than 100,000 polling stations in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and the union territory of Chandigarh. At this stage, the Election Commission has deployed 108,349 employees to conduct the voting.
In northern India and some regions in the eastern part of the country, the heat does not decrease, the air temperature during the day remains around 45 degrees Celsius. The India Meteorological Department reported that the election day temperature in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.9 degrees. At least 100 people died in the country because of the heat.