RANCHI: In yet another incident of hunger death in Jharkhand, 58 year old Savitri Devi died of hunger at Mangargarhi village in Giridih district of Jharkhand on Saturday. Villagers claimed that she had nothing to eat in her home as she was being denied ration from Public Distribution System (PDS) shop since 2012 after her ration card was cancelled as it could not be verified with Aadhar Card.
Savitri’s husband died 10 years back and her two sons have migrated to Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to earn their living. Though she died on Saturday, the villagers found it on Sunday.
“Shavitri Devi died of hunger as she was hungry for at least 3 days as she had nothing to cook in her house. In spite of completing all formalities, she could not be issued a ration card,” said Mukhia of Chainpur Panchayat Ramprasad Mahto. The Block Development Officer (BDO) visited her house and claimed that she died of illness and not of hunger, he added.
Remarkably, around half a dozen of people allegedly died in the last few months across Jharkhand after having been denied ration from their PDS dealers for failing to verify themselves with Aadhaar.
Recently, Lakhi Murmu (30) of Dhowadnagal village under Hiranpur block of Pakur died on January 24 after she was denied food grains under PDS scheme for the past four months resulting in her starvation death. Earlier also, 11-year old Santoshi Kumari, a dalit girl from Karimati village in Simdega died of starvation after her family’s ration card was cancelled for not being linked to their Aadhaar number.