Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday ordered Deputy Commissioner, Simdega, to personally probe into the death of 11-year-old girl child in Jaldega area of the district and submit a report within 24 hours. During his visit to Simdega on Tuesday, Das said that he was struck with profound grief hearing about the incident as he announced immediate relief of Rs 50,000 to the kin of the deceased child.
The DC informed the CM that a three-member committee had investigated the matter and found that the child died due to illness. However, the CM asked him to probe the case personally and report within 24 hours.
According to the report submitted by the three-member committee formed by the DC, the administration had probed the matter on October 13 after a media report published on October 6. The committee report states that the child named Santoshi Kumari had died on September 28, possibly, due to malaria.
The report based on the submissions of a number of relatives and villagers states that the mother of the deceased child Koyli Devi had alleged that the child died due to lack of food and water for 8-10 days. However, other family members and neighbours said that the girl was sick and was being treated by a local medic.
It further states that the child was not going to school for the last six months and used to rear goats in the village. She was being given antibiotics and anti-malaria medicines by a local medic, says the report.
It further adds that the social activist, who has alleged that the child had died due to starvation, had personal feud with the PDS dealer of the panchayat of the deceased. The report also questions the integrity of a local scribe, against whom complaints had been filed at the local police station in the past.
Earlier, MGNREGA Watch activist Taramani Sahu had raised the matter of the starvation death of the child. She had alleged that despite giving a memorandum to DC, Simdega twice that the family was not getting PDS foodgrains because of lack of Aadhar seeding, no action was taken by the administration and even after the death of the child proofs were demanded by the administration that such incident had taken place.