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Starvation death: NHRC seeks Orissa govt's response

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The National Human Rights Commission has directed the Orissa government to submit a report by November 13 on an alleged starvation death this year at Ali Sahi in the cyclone ravaged Puri district.

The NHRC's direction has come in response to a petition filed by the Committee for Legal Aid to Poor, an non-government organisation involved in rehabilitation work in cyclone affected areas.

The petition had alleged that Babuli Kandi (40) and his mother-in-law Sodari Bewa (53) died following acute starvation early this year in their village Ali Sahi.

Babuli, who was injured in the super cyclone, succumbed early in August this year, while Sodari Bewa, died soon after her son-in-law's death.

The petition alleged that the family had not been provided any relief \ compensation even though their house was washed away in the cyclone.

In the past few months several reports of starvation deaths in Jagatsinghpur and Kenderapara districts - two of the areas worst affected by the killer cyclone - have appeared in newspapers.

One such report appeared in an Oriya daily on Friday. The report said Jhari Pradhan (45) and her two daughters, residents of Mendha Sal gram panchayat, haven't had anything to eat for several days now.

Jagdish Pradhan of the Sahbhagi Vikash Abhiyan, an NGO, said starvation deaths are nothing new in coastal Orissa. He, however, added that the super cyclone has made the situation worse.

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