Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru District Disaster Management Unit has initiated the process to provide Rs. 5 lakh compensation to the family of Hosoklu Roshan Balakrishna, a 43-year-old software engineer from Kodagu district, who was killed after being struck by lightning near Yelwal on the outskirts of Mysuru on the evening of May 25.

Though the Disaster Management Unit remained unaware of the incident for nearly 12 hours, Star of Mysore brought the matter to the attention of District Disaster Management Officer Sudhir, following which the process was immediately initiated and the family was contacted through SOM.

The incident occurred when Roshan and his family were travelling from Madikeri to Bengaluru, where he was employed with an IT company under a hybrid work model. During the journey, the family stopped at their site near Yelwal when the tragedy struck.

There was initially some delay in processing the compensation as the victim was not a resident of Mysuru and the incident had occurred on private property and he was directly shifted to hospitals. However, officials later stepped in and expedited the procedure.

“We have initiated the compensation process. The lightning coordinate data and weather logs were verified with the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) to confirm that it was a natural calamity. The family has also been contacted to speed up the claim process,” Sudhir said.

Of the total ex-gratia compensation of Rs. 5 lakh, Rs. 4 lakh will be released from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and Rs. 1 lakh from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

The family has already submitted the First Information Report (FIR). Authorities are now awaiting the final post-mortem report, Aadhaar details and bank account information to establish legal heirship.

Sudhir said the compensation amount would be disbursed within 24 hours after                                              submission and verification of all mandatory documents to avoid any legal disputes.