The UP government has sought details about the reported starvation death of Nathu Prasad (40) in Banda saying that the DM has been asked to submit a detailed report to the government.
Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan told 'The Pioneer' on Wednesday that there are reports about the death of a farmer due to hunger in Banda.
“I cannot confirm the death as the District Magistrate has been asked to probe the matter and submit a report. Once that is done, we can authenticate the cause of death,” he said.
Ranjan said prima facie it seemed a case of natural death as it was reported that the man collapsed after drinking water and died. Initial reports also suggest that Nathu was of average weight. “As we are getting conflicting reports, we have asked the DM to probe the matter,” he said.
There are reports that Nathu Prasad of Aila village in Naraini block of Banda died of hunger. His family members reportedly claimed that he had not eaten anything for the last four days.
The Chief Secretary said that the state government has been distributing food packets under 'Food Security Act' to all Antodaya families. It is matter of probe whether the said family was in the list of beneficiaries and had received food packets or not.
Meanwhile, Opposition parties have criticised the state government for playing politics with people of the drought-hit region.
BJP state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the government has failed to distribute food grains among the needy.
“People are talking about death of Nathu only but there are reports that the same day, another man, Ramesh died of hunger in Umri village in Hamirpur. The CM had earlier given stated that action would be taken against the DM and the ADMs in case of starvation deaths. Why has no action been taken against the DMs of Banda and Hamirpur,” Maurya querried.
Congress spokesman Amarnath Agarwal said that the CM had recently distributed food packets among drought-hit people of Bundelkhand. "This starvation death is a clear reflection that the government’s much-hyped help has failed to reach the target populace," he said.