Former Chief Minister Raghubar Das has written to Chief Secretary of the State to exempt cloth merchants of East Singhbhum from lockdown that has been enforced due to spread of coronavirus.
In his letter, Das mentioned that a delegation of Jamshedpur Thok Vastra Vikreta Sangh had met him on May 18 and had shared with him the crisis being faced by the traders due to lockdown. The delegation had said that they are unable to sustain a living due to lockdown. The traders are not even able to pay salaries of their workers.
Das said that though East Singhbhum is under Orange Zone still the shops have been asked to close down. He said that similar on the lines of Odisha and West Bengal, the traders of East Singhbhum should be allowed to operate. He requested the Government to allow the shopkeepers to function.
Meanwhile, expressing deep concern over the death due to hunger in Jharkhand, Das has described it as a proof of state government's inefficiency. He has demanded that strict action should be taken by registering a murder case against the person responsible for the death of two consecutive daughters in Jharkhand.
Das has said that the CM is patting his back daily through the medium of media and making blatant announcements, but the governance system is slipping from his hand day by day. The agility and furtherance that the state government should show during the lockdown is only seen superficially but the reality is different.
“On April 3, a 17-year-old Dalit Upaso of Sangrampur village in Gola of Ramgarh died of hunger. This series of deaths from hunger continues. This time, on May 16, five-year-old daughter Nimli Kumari of Jagal Bhuiyan died in Hesatu village of Donki panchayat of Manika block of Latehar district.
Like Upaso's death, efforts are on to hide the cause of Nimmi's death. It is being said that the girl has died due to heat stroke, while the family members are describing this death as starvation. It is said that Nimmi's family did not have a grain of food to eat at home.
On one hand, adequate ration is being supplied by the Central Government to the poor, on the other hand the State Government is not able to provide ration to the poor, because of which people are starving constantly,” he said.
He said that Upaso and Nimmi's starvation death is not a normal death. It is a kind of murder of the daughters of Jharkhand at the hands of the state government. Never before has such a scene of government apathy and carelessness been seen.