Kolkata, Sep 4 : The West Bengal government has listed heatwave deaths as a natural disaster, and will provide financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the affected family.

This decision was taken in a recent meeting of the 'State Executive Committee', said sources in the state secretariat on Thursday.

In the last few years, several deaths due to heatstroke were reported across the state. The deaths were reported from districts, including western districts of Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram, West Burdwan and Birbhum, which witness heatwave or heatwave conditions during summer.

"The government officials took notice of such incidents and started thinking about this," said the sources. In August, state Chief Secretary Manoj Pant held a meeting on this. It is reported that in that meeting, it was decided to provide financial assistance in case of death due to heatstroke as a result of a heatwave.

The government will soon be issuing a formal notification in this regard, said the sources.

In case of a death due to the heatwave, a post-mortem report will be mandatory to get financial assistance. Once it is established that the person died due to heatstroke, then only the family will receive the compensation.

The money will be released only after verifying the cause of the death.

According to a government official, declaring heatwave deaths as natural disasters will now make it possible to provide this compensation from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). About 10 per cent of the annual allocation of the SDRF can be used to provide compensation to the families of those who died in natural disasters, the official added.

It may be noted that the state government till now provides compensation of Rs 2 lakh in cases of death due to lightning strike, accidental fire, boat capsizing, falling trees and wall collapse of a house.

From now on, the state government declared 14 incidents, including heatwave, river erosion, heavy rain, wild animal attack, death due to electrocution, forest fire, death due to venomous animal bite or animal attack as natural disasters.

/IANS