65-year man dies of starvation in Jharkhand

The non-delivery of ration due to network issue in the point of sale machine starved 65-year-old Ramcharan Munda to death.

Munda, a resident of Lurgumi Kala village, died on Thursday. His family members had not been getting the ration for the last three months.

Villagers on Friday said Munda died because the electronic machine used for biometric-based ration delivery was not working. Several villagers also claimed that they have not received any ration for the past three months.

"We haven't received ration for the past three months. He hadn't eaten anything for the past four days. No food was being cooked in our home for the past four months. We asked for rations from the villagers," said Meera Kumari, Munda's daughter.

"We do not even have enough resources to complete his last rites," she said.

The local administration, however, has refused to admit that Munda died of starvation.

"It has not yet been proved that he died of starvation. He was provided all benefits like Ayushman Bharat Yojana, ration card, pension. There is no internet connection here. So we are now distributing ration offline," said Sub-Divisional District Magistrate (SDM) Sudhir Kumar.

Talking about the non-delivery of ration, the villagers said: "We asked the dealer about the non-delivery of ration. We even went to the office of DC regarding this, but in vain. DC said that rations will be distributed offline and not online, but still the dealer did not provide ration," a villager said.

"Though we were not getting any ration for the past three months, when the administration came to know that a man in the village has died of starvation, we are getting ration today," said another villager.