A 45-year-old woman died of hunger at Korta village under Danda Block of Garwa district on Friday, villagers alleged.
The woman named, Premni Kunwar, wife of Mutur Mahto did not have anything to eat despite being an Antyodaya card holder.
She was managing food from neighbours for the past 15 days, locals said.
SDO, Garhwa Pradeep Kumar, who visited the village on the instructions of DC Neha Arora said that the woman was sick and anything could be said only after the cause of the woman’s death could be ascertained through autopsy.
Although Kumar accepted that there was no food grain at her house, he said that the deceased lady had Rs 2,400 in her bank account.
The SDO also said that a probe was going on to find out why she was not getting food from PDS shop.
According to villagers Kunwar used to get 35 Kg of food-grains under the Antyodaya scheme every month. In the month on August and September there was no allotment of foodgrain to the PDS dealer of Korta village but in the PDS card of Kunwar ration delivery is shown by the dealer.
They said that Kunwar had received 35 kg ration in the month of October but she gave it back to the neighbours from whom she borrowed foodgrains in the months of August-September.
The lady had received her widow pension in the month of July and after that she had not received it despite running from pillar to post to get it.
The woman, villagers said, was totally dependent on Antyodaya foodgrains in the circumstances and possibly died because of hunger.
His son Uttam Mahto sometimes used to bring leftover Mid Day Meal food from school and she used to eat it, they added.
The district administration officials accepted the fact that the lady did not have foodgrains and home and was devoid of PDS ration but said that the cause of death could only be ascertained after postmortem, which was going on at the time of filing of this report.