Jharkhand 'starvation' death: Did the girl die of malaria?

A team from the Centre will probe the "starvation" death reported from Jharkhand recently.

Ranchi, Oct 19: The alleged "starvation" death of an 11-year-old girl in Simdega, Jharkhand, in September, has resulted into a war of words between the government officials and food rights activists.

While the officials maintain that the girl died due to malaria (which is rampant in the area), the family of the deceased girl and food rights activists say she died as there was no rice in the house to feed her.

Santoshi Kumari, according to her family and food rights activists, died on September 28 because of "hunger" as the poor family stopped getting rice under the government's Public Distribution System (PDS) after its ration card, which was in the name of the grandmother of the deceased girl, was rendered invalid as it was not linked to Aadhaar card.

After the shocking incident of "starvation" death of the girl, a team from the Centre will visit the state to initiate a probe into the matter that has once again brought to light the horrors that could haunt anyone without an Aadhaar card.

Probably the probe by the team to be sent by the Centre would reveal the actual reason behind Santoshi's sad demise.

Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday said a central team would be sent to Jharkhand to probe the heart-numbing case, although the state government officials maintained that the girl died due to malaria and not starvation.

"If poor people die of hunger, it is a matter of concern. We will send a central probe team," Paswan told reporters in the national capital. He added that the state had been asked to submit a report at the earliest on the "hunger" death.

After receiving severe criticism for the "starvation" death, the state food and civil supplies department on Wednesday issued a fresh advisory asking officials to verify whether any genuinely needy family was denied foodgrain for lack of Aadhaar linkage.

On Tuesday, Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das asked the administration to provide Rs 50,000 to the family of the deceased girl as interim relief, and asked the deputy commissioner to conduct a probe and take action against anyone found guilty.

The death of the girl is the fallout of an order of the chief secretary of the state back in April to cancel ration cards not linked with Aadhaar cards to weed out fake beneficiaries.

Although the incident happened last month, it came to light only a few days ago after the news website Scroll wrote about the horrific incident.

OneIndia News