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Written by Abhishek Angad
| Ranchi |
Updated: December 4, 2020 7:52:10 pm
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. (File Photo)The Jharkhand High Court on Friday pulled up the Hemant Soren government after it claimed that there were no starvation deaths in the state. A bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad was hearing a suo motu case after a letter was sent to the High Court on the death of three members of Bokaro family in a span of six months. At the last hearing, the court had asked the state to file an affidavit.
On Friday, Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan told the court, “As per the reports of the Deputy Commissioner, a medical team inquired and said that Bhukkhal Ghansi and his two children did not die of starvation, but of illness.”
CJ Ranjan said: “If there have been no starvation deaths in the state, why has JHALSA (Jharkhand Legal Services Authority) started a scheme to prevent starvation deaths? Also, if the state is denying starvation deaths, why is that the state’s CM on Constitution Day inaugurated such a scheme?”
The Chief Justice then ordered the state to provide a detailed affidavit. He said: “Let the state provide the details of starvation or starvation death, if any… Make JHALSA a party respondent on this matter and to respond as to why it was compelled to bring out such a scheme.”
The court listed the matter for the hearing on January 15.
The JHALSA Scheme which the court was referring to is called ‘Effective Intervention for Reducing Hunger and Prevention of Starvation Death’. It says that Jharkhand is a tribal state with a majority of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe communities. “A number of Primitive Tribal Communities (PVTG) live in the remote forests. They are required to be taken very good care of. All of them are eligible for the benefits of Food Security Schemes, so that they may never suffer from starvation,” the scheme says.
It says that due to shortage of manpower, sometimes the benefits of government schemes do not reach the person in acute need thereof. “It is the duly of one and all to stand up to the occasion and do their best in right earnestness. JHALSA has trained about 3,000 paralegal volunteers at Panchayat Level,” it says.
The rebuke by the High Court assumes significance as before coming to power, Soren had made starvation deaths during the BJP rule a major plank while campaigning for the 2019 Assembly elections.
Bhukkhal Ghasi, 42, died in March — months after the JMM-Congress government came to power. After his death, Ghansi’s wife told The Indian Express, “Naamo Bhukkhal, marlo bhi bhookhal (His name was hungry and he died hungry).”
The family did not have a ration card and did not have access to subsidised foodgrain under the National Food Security Act. Subsequently, his 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter died in May and August, respectively. These two deaths were also said to be caused by hunger.
In September, The Indian Express reported that the Soren government had told the Assembly that the deaths of Ghansi and his two children were not caused by “hunger”, but by “illness”.
In response to a question by BJP legislators Amit Kumar Mandal and Amar Bauri, Food Minister Rameshwar Oraon said in a written response, “As per the letters of Deputy Commissioner of Bokaro… Bhukkhal Ghansi and his two children did not die of hunger, but due to illness.
“As per the letters, Bhukkhal Ghansi’s daughter Rakhi Kumari was affected by some genetic disease, and after hospitalisation, she would get better, but become ill again. She died on August 31. Ghansi’s son also died during his treatment in Sadar Hospital in Bokaro and it was a case of illness too,” the reply said.
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