The issue of starvation death of a woman in Balangir district that had rocked the State Assembly on Thursday cropped up again on Friday as the Government said she passed away following prolonged illness while the Opposition maintained that she died of hunger.
The Government quoted a report of the Balangir Collector as saying the 55-year-old woman was paralytic for years, used to receive BPl benefits under PDS and was looked after by her neighbours.
leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra of the Congress, however, rejected this statement and asked how the woman was collecting BPl rice from PDS outlets if she was paralytic.
Speaker Niranjan Pujari had on Thursday directed the Government to give a statement on the issue in the House within 24 hours.
In his statement on Friday, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Bijayshree Routray said information received from the Balangir Collector showed that Sua Dei Nag of Gutupalli village died not due to starvation but because of prolonged illness.
The woman, a widow, was paralytic for the last eight to nine years and bedridden for two years, Routray said, adding that her only son Kalindi Nag had left the village with his family and their whereabouts were not known.
While Sua Dei received widow pension of Rs 300 till October and 25 kg of BPl rice up to November 17 this year, she was being looked after by neighbours, the Minister said. She had been provided an Indira Awas Yojana house, he said.
The wman died on December 7 and her last rites were performed the next day, he said, adding that Balangir Tehsildar and BDO have conducted a joint enquiry into the incident.
leader of Opposition Mishra, however, questioned how she walked and collected the rice from PDS outlets if she was suffering from paralysis. As no postmortem was done, how could the Government confirm that it was not a case of starvation, he asked and alleged that postmortem was not done to suppress the cause of her death.
The Assistant BDO recorded the statement of villagers by using lights of mobile phone as there is no electricity in the village, the Congress leader said. Those who got their statements recorded were pressurised by the district administration to say that it is not a case of starvation, Mishra alleged.