A controversy erupted here on Tuesday over a notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the West Bengal Government citing a media report which claims that “nearly 1000 people have died due to malnutrition in three closed tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district and two in Alipurduar district”.
A press release issued by the NHRC on Monday stated that the Commission has “taken suo motu cognizance” and a notice has been issued to the “Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal, calling upon him to submit a detailed report in the matter within four weeks”.
Reacting to the development, North Bengal Development Minister, Gautam Deb, said the claims made in the NHRC notice are baseless.
“This is absolutely bogus. The notice does not refer to a time frame for these deaths. In such a situation there can be no basis to such claims,” Mr Deb told The Hindu from Malda district.
“Does the notice claim that 1,000 deaths have occurred since the time the tea gardens were set up during the British Raj," the Minister quipped.
The press statement issued by the NHRC has referred to “low wages, poor quality of ration and insufficient medical facilities which have led to contracting rampant tuberculosis and other unknown ailments by them”.
“The rice distributed under PDS being unfit for consumption, there was nothing else to eat. These workers barely survived on shrubs collected from the gardens,” the press release said.
The NHRC statement added that the “State Government has declined to acknowledge that these deaths occurred due to starvation. It has even declined to recognize that there was any malnutrition death”.
Harsha Mander, the special commissioner to the Supreme Court on Right to Food, who met the State Government officials last week had told The Hindu that the Government was providing adequate relief to the workers of the closed and abandoned tea gardens.
Several non-government organisations which visited the five closed tea gardens of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts have described the reason for the deaths as closure and abandonment leading to malnutrition and consequent diseases.
