Wednesday, 06 June 2018 | Parvinder Bhatia | Jamshedpur | in Ranchi
Addressing media this afternoon at the district party headquarter in Bistupur, the senior leader said that 11 persons have died of hunger since September 2017 in different parts of the State mostly due to failure in getting food grains under public distribution system (PDS).State Congress president Ajoy Kumar on Tuesday demanded resignation of state food and civil supplies minister, Saryu Roy over starvation deaths in different parts of the state since last year.
“It is a matter of great concern that the state government failed in execution of public distribution system. From the data collected by us from independent sources, out of the 11 hunger deaths since September last year in five cases the victims’ family did not have a ration card. In one case the family’s ration card was cancelled as it was not linked with Aadhaar. In four cases the family could not access ration due to the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication for accessing PDS foodgrains,” said the IPS turned politician.
He went on to add that according to government’s own data, at least 10-20 % households (around 6-11 lakh households) are denied their grains every month due to Aadhaar-based biometric authentication. In one case the victim did not receive her pension as it was getting credited in someone else’s bank account linked with her Aadhaar. The victim was also denied her PDS foodgrains even though she successfully authenticated herself through Aadhaar-based biometric authentication. Most of the families could not get employment under MGNREGA. No action has been taken on erring officials and functionaries he noted.
“Moreover, in June itself there have been two deaths in Giridih and Chatra due to starvation. We demand resignation of the state food and civil supplies minister and criminal proceedings against all officials whose lapses have led to the starvation deaths,” said Ajoy Kumar.
The Congress leader also asked the state government to make public the actions taken by the committee constituted by the government in March this year to probe into starvation deaths and provide policy recommendations for avoiding hunger and went to demand immediate termination of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication for accessing foodgrains, social security pensions and all other welfare entitlements.