Hurricane Maria kills 4,600 in Puerto Rico
San Juan, May 30: Hurricane Maria killed more than 4,600 people in Puerto Rico, 70 times the official death toll of 64, the media reported on Wednesday.
A Harvard University study estimated that a third of deaths after September's hurricane were due to interruptions in medical care caused by power cuts and broken road links, reports the BBC.
The Harvard researchers said interviews conducted in Puerto Rico suggested a 60 per cent increase in mortality in the three months after the storm.
They contacted more than 3,000 randomly selected households between January and March in 2018 and asked about displacement, infrastructure loss, and causes of death.
The experts said that an accurate count was complicated by the widespread devastation wreaked by the storm.
The Puerto Rico government said it "always expected the number to be higher than what was previously reported".
Carlos Mercader from Puerto Rico's Federal Affairs Administration said he welcomed the Harvard survey. "The magnitude of this tragic disaster caused by Hurricane Maria resulted in many fatalities," he said.
He added that the island's authorities had also commissioned George Washington University to study the number of deaths and these findings would be released soon, reports the BBC.
"Both studies will help us better prepare for future natural disasters and prevent lives from being lost," he said.
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Gujarat man held for impersonating govt official, duping people with forged letters
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Ahmedabad police have arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly posed as a senior revenue official and used fake letters claiming to be from various government departments to cheat people, an official said on Sunday.
Mehul Shah, an engineer who manages two schools at Vankaner in Gujarat’s Morbi district, is accused of making lakhs of rupees with bogus documents and false claims, said inspector (crime branch) JK Makwana.
Shah had forged an appointment letter from the Ahmedabad district education officer (DEO) to offer a computer operator’s job in a government office to a complainant’s son. He also introduced himself as a trustee of a school and did not pay a man Rs 7 lakh due to him over the painting of a school building, the official said.
“Despite holding no official position in the state or central government, he used fake work permits and NOCs to cheat people of lakhs of rupees,” the police official said.
One complainant alleged that Shah identified himself as a top revenue department official and produced a fake letter from the chairman of the “department of science and research development” to make him install a siren and curtain in a hired vehicle but did not pay for the job, he said.
Bogus letters claiming to be from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ahmedabad DEO were used by the accused to cheat the complainants, the police official said.
Police have recovered from his possession fake identity cards and letters with headings like “bharat gaurav ratna shri samman council”, “chairman of department of science and research development”, “health and family welfare department”, and “road and building department”.
“The FIR is based on complaints by three victims. We appeal to the people to come forward and submit their complaints if they have been cheated by Shah in any way,” Makwana said.
