CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ SAMBALPUR  SATURDAY  JUNE 01, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION ‘Sunstroke’ deaths jump to 36 as heat singes Odisha Popularity test for VIPs in final phase of polls A heatstroke patient being admitted to the Rourkela Government Hospital,on Friday | EXPRESS R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi A S I S H M E H TA @ Bhubaneswar A clutch of VIPs will face their popularity test in the last of seven phases of the general elections on Saturday. At stake is the reputation of big hitters such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his five cabinet colleagues and Opposition leaders like the Trinamool Congress’s Abhishek Banerjee. While Modi is meditating at the Vivekananda Rock memorial in Kanniyakumari, he party leaders are managing the Varanasi joust. In all, 57 Lok Sabha seats spread across seven states — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab — and the Union territory of Chandigarh will go to polls. Modi is seeking his third consecutive re-election from Varanasi. His cabinet colleague Anurag Thakur is seeking re-election from Parliamentary Hamirpur. He is pitted against Congress’ constituencies Anand Sharma. Other prominent BJP (General 41; ST 3; SC 13) in leaders in the fray are Anupriya Patel, R K 8 States/UTs go to polls Singh, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Pankaj Chaudhary Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter , 42 Assembly constituencies Misa Bharti and Congress’ Manish Ti(General 27; ST 6; SC 9) of wari. The prestige of actor Kangana RaOdisha assembly, too, will naut and Himachal minister Vikramadithave simultaneous polling ya Singh Singh is at stake in Mandi. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, former envoy to 10.9 lakh polling the US, is pitted against Akali Dal’s Anil officials deployed Joshi from Amritsar. Union minister R K Over 10.06 cr electors Singh is aiming at a hat-trick from Arrah, to cast their ballots - 5.24 where his challenger is Sudama Prasad, a cr male; 4.82 cr female and sitting MLA of the CPI(ML) Liberation. In Varanasi, those contesting against 3,574 third gender Modi are Ajay Rai (Congress), Ather Jamal Lari (BSP), Kolisetty Shiva Kumar (Yuga Thulasi Party), Gagan Prakash Yadav, (Apna Dal, Kameravadi), and independents Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Kumar Tiwari. In Patna Sahib, BJP veterRavi Shankar Prasad is aiming at a second consecutive term. In Bengal, the seventh phase will cover Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jayanagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, and Kolkata Uttar, where the Trinamool secured victories in 2019. Late Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari is in the fray from Ghazipur. WITH the heatwave showing no signs of a let up in Odisha, the suspected sunstroke fatalities stood at 36 in the last 48 hours as more number of deaths came in from western districts which bore the brunt of the blistering conditions. Rourkela city in Sundargarh district, where 10 persons had died within seven hours on Thursday, reported six more casualties, prompting the state government to deploy a high-level medical team to ascertain the exact cause of the string of fatalities. Similarly, the industrial town of Jharsuguda reported eight deaths, most of the victims being drivers by profession. Six deaths each were reported from Sambalpur and Balangir districts. The state government, however, said it has received reports of 13 suspected sunstroke deaths in Sundargarh and six in Jharsuguda in the last 48 hours. Of the 42 suspected deaths reports this year, six have been confirmed to have been caused by heatstroke, officials said. Special relief commissioner (SRC) Satyabrata Sahu said collectors of Sundargarh and Jharsuguda are closely monitoring the situation. “A team of doctors is investigating the reason behind the deaths reported in the two districts. The exact reason can be ascertained after receiving the post-mortem reports,” he said. Preliminary reports indicated that most of the victims succumbed while working outside amid soaring temperature between 11 am and 3 pm. SRC Sahu said district collectors have been directed to create awareness so that people avoid working during the peak hours as heatwave to severe heatwave condition is expected to prevail in Odisha for the next two days. The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) extended range outlook for the next two weeks does not bring any cheer. The national weather forecaster predicted heatwave condition in Odisha between May 31 and June 6. Similarly, during the subsequent week, day temperature is likely to jump by 2 degree to 3 degree C above normal. Alarmed by the spike in deaths and heatwave forecasts, the Health and Family Welfare has issued an advisory and directed all the districts to stay in readiness to deal with heat-related diseases. Health secretary Shalini Pandit instructed all medical colleges and hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, community health centres and district headquarter hospitals to make adequate arrangements as per the national and state action plans on heat-related illnesses. Proper management and surveillance must be ensured, she said. Meanwhile, heatwave condition prevailed in most parts of Balangir, Sonepur, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Kandhamal districts. Titlagarh which recorded 46.5 degree Celsius was the hottest place in the state. However, denizens of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack had some respite with mercury reporting a drop due to cloudy weather on the day . PHASE 7 FACTS 57 PRAJWAL IN POLICE CUSTODY TILL JUNE 6 Suspended JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, facing sexual abuse allegations, was remanded in police custody on Friday, hours after he was arrested by a special team upon his return from Germany | P5 POSITIVE STORY GDP BEATS ADVANCE ESTIMATES, LOGS 8.2% EXPANSION IN 2023-24 E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi INDIA’s real GDP grew at a fabulous 8.2% in FY24 against 7% in FY23. This is 60 bps higher than the second advance estimates, which pegged growth at 7.6%. This is also the third successive year of 7%-plus growth. It beats both RBI’s forecast of 7% and consensus estimates of 7.6-7.8%, and retains India’s position as the world’s fastest growing major economy for the third year in a row. However, Q4 growth slowed marginally to 7.8%, lower than the 8%-plus growth registered in each of the previous three quarters of FY24. According to provisional estimates released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday, real GDP, in absolute numbers, stood at `173.82 lakh crore in FY24 against `160.71 lakh crore a year before, while gross Stellar growth 8.2% 9.7% 7% 3.9% FY24 FY23 FY22 FY21 FY20 `173.82L cr GDP size in FY24, up from FY23’s `160.71 lakh cr -5.8% GDP growth (%) value added was `295.36 lakh crore. Likewise, Q4 real GDP stood at `47.24 lakh crore against `43.84 lakh crore a year ago. On the expenditure side, FY24’s growth was driven by domestic investments, which grew by 8.9%, while private consumption and government consumption remained subdued. Sources said private consumption will likely fare better given that it recorded a decent growth of 9.4% between FY21 and FY23, notwithstanding the post-pandemic affects on spending. On the supply side, the agriculture sector saw a heart-sinking 1.4% growth; services sector growth too was less than desired at 7.6%. Industries sector turned in a relatively better performance of 9.7% growth in FY24. Manufacturing saw 9.9% growth against a 2.2% contraction in FY23. Mining sector grew 7.1% in FY24 compared to 1.9% a year ago. A jury found the ex-US president Donald Trump guilty on each of the 34 counts of falsifying records to hide a payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels | P9