Jaipur, Apr 30 (PTI): The death of six people due to unconfirmed reasons in two villages located around Siliserh Lake in Alwar district in the last four days has prompted the district administration to initiate a probe.
Senior Rajasthan Congress leader and leader of opposition in the state assembly Tikaram Jully, however, alleged that the deaths occurred due to spurious liquor.
The administration, on its part, has ruled out the possibility of spurious liquor being a cause of the deaths.
Alwar Collector Artika Shukla confirmed on Wednesday that six men have died, but she said three of the deaths had no connection with liquor.
"Family members of one of the deceased men informed our team that he fell sick after pesticide spray on the farm, while another man who died was suffering from high BP. The family of the third man said that he was an asthma patient," said Shukla, who had sent a team of officials from the district administration and police to the villages.
The collector said that the exact cause cannot be ascertained since no postmortem was conducted.
The remaining three men who died were liquor addicts, but they were not taken to hospital by the family members after they fell sick, she informed.
"CMHO (chief medical and health officer) said that liver failure or high BP could be a probable cause of death," she said.
An investigation into the matter is underway. The district authorities, including the police, are probing the matter, including illicit liquor.
"According to the initial probe, the reasons for deaths are different. There is no confirmation of death due to liquor so far," Sanjeev Nain, Alwar SP, said.
Villagers said that Suresh Balmiki (45) died on Saturday, Ramkishore (47) and Ramkumar (39) died on Sunday, while Lalaram (60), Bharat (40) and Omi (65) died on Monday.
Balkishan, father of deceased Ramkumar, said that his son had come home after consuming a bottle of country-made liquor.
"After some time, his health deteriorated, and he died in the hospital," he told reporters in Alwar.
Targeting the state government over the issue, Jully claimed that the illicit liquor business flourished under the BJP rule.
"The government has turned a blind eye to this issue. The government is trying to hide the truth and death figures in Alwar," he alleged.
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Bengaluru: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the southwest monsoon will cause heavy rainfall likely this weekend and will drench Karnataka over the next 10 days.
The monsoon has begun retreating from northwestern India. Conditions remain active over the south, with an upper air trough extending up to 1.5 km over North Interior Karnataka and northern Tamil Nadu, combined with weakening monsoon winds across the peninsula, is driving the current spell. N. Puviarasan, head of the IMD’s meteorological centre in Bengaluru, said in a conversation with Deccan Herald, “As a result, the whole of Karnataka will see rain over the next week to 10 days."
With a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean along with a low-pressure system over the north Bay of Bengal, the monsoon is expected to intensify during the next four days. IMD has predicted heavy rains across South Interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru, throughout the weekend.
Bengaluru, recorded widespread moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday. Between 8.30 am and 8.30 pm, Bengaluru city logged 45.9 mm of rain accompanied by thunderstorms. HAL airport registered 6 mm and the Bengaluru Urban automatic station recorded 47.5 mm. Doddathoguru, near Electronics City, reported 55 mm.
According to IMD forecast heavy rainfall will occur at isolated places in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Yadgir, Koppal, Raichur, Ramanagara and Mandya districts in the next few days.
The southwest monsoon is now expected to extend until mid-October and with little or no break in between, the northeast monsoon is likely to follow immediately. These are expected to last until December. “There may be no break in between,” Puviarasan said.