Jharkhand CM orders probe into 'starvation death'

Bokaro (Jharkhand), Mar 9 (PTI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has ordered a probe into reports of alleged starvation death of a 40-year-old man in Bokaro, even as the district administration attributed the death to some disease.

Bhukhal Ghasi of Kamra village in Bokaro district died in his mud house on Friday, following which a social worker alleged that he died of starvation.

"The Secretary, Food, is probing into the death and necessary action is being taken. The guilty will not be spared," Soren said in a tweet on Sunday.

The chief minister also asked the Bokaro deputy commissioner to provide relief to Ghasi's family and set up a camp to supply ration cards to the needy.

"Bhukhal Ghasi, who returned home from Bengaluru around six months ago, died of some disease. His limbs had swollen and the local MLA provided him with an ambulance to go to a hospital for a check-up, but he refused," Kasmar Block Development Officer Rajesh Kumar Sinha said.

Sinha, however, acknowledged that Ghasi did not have a ration card and the one he was using was in the name of his father, who died last year.

After Ghasi's death, social worker Dilip Kumar Sawal alleged that Ghasi died of starvation and that he has videographic evidence to support his claim.

Sawal also claimed that he had financially helped the family several times.

Ghasi, who was working as a labourer in Bengaluru, returned home after his father and mother died within two days in July last year due to age-related ailments.

The house allotted to his parents under the Indira Awas Yojana is being used by Ghasi's married son while he and his wife stayed in a mud house nearby, official sources said.

Ghasi is survived by two sons and three daughters and his wife has been forced to beg as her husband was physically unfit for manual work, according to local people.

On November 7 last year, the then Jharkhand food and civil supplies minister Saryu Roy had said there was a protocol to give ration under the Annapurna Yojana to the needy. There are grain banks and Rs 10,000 has been given to village heads who can be approached for assistance, he had said.