A fresh instance of death due to starvation and illness have come to fore in Jharkhand with the family members of a 43-year-old rickshaw puller who died on Friday alleging that they were going hungry for days.
The Dhanbad district Administration, however, said that the preliminary inquiry into the death has revealed that Baidyanath Das, a resident of Manghra village from Jharia block was suffering from illness for the past one month.
“In the family the deceased wife and son were earning members. An online application regarding the issue of Ration Card was obtained in the name of Pravati Devi (wife of deceased) on September 22 and is in the final stages of procession,” Anjaneyulu Dodde , DC Dhanbad told The Hindu.
The DC said that the administration wanted to conduct post mortem of the deceased but the family did not agree and cremated the deceased.
Suman one of the daughters of the deceased told journalists on Sunday that there was no food in the house over 10-15 days.
“Mother used to work as a maid. She earned about ₹ 400-500 (per month).. Father used to earn by pulling a rickshaw,” she added.
Meanwhile with the news of the death spreading politicians started visiting the family members . Jaganath Mahato, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA from Dumri visited the house and assured help to the family. This was followed by the visit of Chandrasekhar Agarwal Mayor of Dhanbad.
The incident comes days after family members of 11-year-old girl in Simdega alleged that she died of starvation. The girl died on September 28. The district administration of Simdega had said that the she died of malaria.
