Bhubaneswar, May 3: Three persons were killed on Wednesday and six districts affected in the nor'wester in Odisha, said an official on Thursday.

Deputy Relief Commissioner Prabhat Ranjan Mohapatra said while two persons were killed after tree branches fell on them in Balasore and Bargarh districts during the rain, another person was killed in a wall collapse in Mayurbhanj district in the squall last night.

A report from Malkangiri district said that three persons were injured in the nor'wester accompanied by heavy rain, he said.

He said the government had received preliminary reports from six districts -- Bargarh, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Balasore, Sonepur and Mayurbhanj -- so far on the impact of unseasonal rain.

"Major damage to crops and houses have been reported in the six districts and Bargarh remains the worst hit," said the official.

The government has provided a compensation amount of Rs 5.31 lakh to the families for construction of houses in Mayurbhanj district.

Other districts had been asked to submit reports on major damages due to the unseasonal rain, he added.

"The crop loss assessment has not been done yet as it is just the initial report," Mahapatra added.

According to preliminary reports, in all 456 people died due to lightning during 2017-18.

Lightning has become a major disaster in the state that claims more than 400 human lives on an average every year.

In comparison to other natural calamities that cause more economic losses, the death toll due to lightning is much higher in Odisha. The loss of 456 lives in 2017-18 is a 15 per cent increase over that of the last year, according to an official.

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Bengaluru: In a significant step toward strengthening cybersecurity, Karnataka has established the country’s first Cyber Command Centre. This pioneering initiative aims to address the alarming rise in cybercrime cases across the state.

The newly-formed Cyber Command Centre will focus on a broad range of digital threats, including cyber fraud, hacking, identity theft, online stalking, sextortion, deepfake-related crimes, misinformation, data breaches, among others. It comes as Karnataka, particularly its capital Bengaluru, continues to grapple with a spike in cybercrime incidents—reportedly accounting for nearly 20% of all such cases recorded in India’s megacities. Over the past four years, the state has registered more than 52,000 cybercrime cases, the highest in South India.

The Cyber Command will operate under the leadership of an IPS officer of the rank of Director General of Police.

As part of the restructuring, 43 CEN (Cyber, Economic and Narcotics) police stations across the state will now function as designated cybercrime units.

Headquartered at the CID building on Palace Road, the Cyber Command Centre will serve as a hub for coordinating the state’s cybercrime prevention and investigation efforts. DGP (Cyber Command) will report to the Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department and not the Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP), Karnataka State Police.