Now, 'starvation' deaths of three brothers due to lack of Aadhaar reported from K'taka

According to a report, three brothers in Karnataka died of hunger as they did not have an Aadhaar card to avail foodgrains under the government's Public Distribution System (PDS).

New Delhi, Oct 20: On Monday, the entire nation was rattled by a report by news website, Scroll.in, detailing the alleged "starvation" death of an 11-year-old girl from Jharkhand.

On Thursday, Scroll.in once again reported starvation death, this time of three brothers from Karnataka. All the three men were adults between the age of 46 to 55 years.

In both the instances of Jharkhand and Karnataka, the victims reportedly died due to lack of food (rice) after they were denied foodgrains under the government's Public Distribution System (PDS) as they failed to link their ration cards with Aadhaar cards.

According to Scroll.in, the three Dalit brothers died of starvation in July near Karnataka's Gokarna town after the family was denied ration for six months because they did not have an Aadhaar card.

"The three brothers - Narayana, Venkataramma and Subbu Maru Mukhri - died between July 2 and July 13 in their village of Belehittala," stated Scroll.in.

While locals and activists allege that the brothers died of hunger, authorities maintain "alcoholism" killed the three men, one after another.

A similar position was maintained by the Jharkhand officials when death of Santoshi Kumar was reported from Simdega. While Santoshi's family and food rights activists say she died of hunger, authorities in Jharkhand stated that the girl died on September 28 because of malaria.

Now, the Centre has promised to send a probe panel to find out the reason behind the death of the minor girl in the BJP-ruled state.

In fact, the reports of starvation deaths from Jharkhand and Karnataka have come to light at a time when India has been placed in the 100th place among 119 countries across the world as per the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report.

The statement by the International Food Policy Research Institute, which produced the report, said, "India is ranked 100th out of 119 countries, and has the third-highest score in all of Asia - only Afghanistan and Pakistan are ranked worse."

OneIndia News