Administration denies starvation death yet again

DEOGARH: The house of Jatra Khilar (60) of San Dangaghat village in Reamal block, who reportedly died of starvation on Sunday, neither has walls nor a door. The house was damaged in the last monsoon.The house stands on six wooden poles with a thatched roof. All that he had in his house were six aluminium utensils, a lantern, some mats besides a few clothes.Unable to work due to old age, Khilar and his wife Chandri resorted to either begging or survived on whatever help their fellow villagers offered them. Villagers said there have been many days when the elderly couple could not even manage one meal. They were neither provided a BPL card nor house building assistance under the Indira Awas Yojana. While the district administration quickly concluded that Khilar died of asthama and not starvation, the postmortem report has attributed his death to old age and unable to bear cold. Although the elderly couple made rounds of different government offices seeking compensation of  Rs 1,500 for the damaged house, their pleas remained unheard.Their plight has now questioned the delivery mechanism of the State Government. His is yet another case of malnutrition and lack of immunity resulting in death. Though the officials concerned have gone on a denial mode and are throwing up various explanations for the death, villagers have held the district administration responsible for the death. As a cover-up, a four-member delegation led by Sub-Collector Abhiram Kerketta called on Chandri at the direction of Collector Julius Lakra and offered her 15 kg of rice and Rs 1,000.