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Flood victim dies of starvation in Bihar
A victim of the devastating August 2008 floods in Bihar reportedly died of starvation early this month as no relief reached his family and he was unable to get any work, a social activist said.
- IANS
- Published: 23:42 January 13, 2009
Bharatpur, Bihar: A victim of the devastating August 2008 floods in Bihar reportedly died of starvation early this month as no relief reached his family and he was unable to get any work, a social activist said.
Local government officials have ordered a probe into the incident but denied Sharma died due to starvation.
Mahender Sharma, 45, a resident of Bharatpur village under Lalganj panchayat of Chatapur block in Supaul district, about 250km from here, died of starvation January 2, leaving his family shocked and shattered, said social activist Nand Kumar Azad.
"It is a case of starvation death. Mahender Sharma, a flood victim, was not provided any relief and was without food for days before he breathed his last," said Azad, the state convenor of Bihar Lok Swaraj Andolan, a voluntary organisation working in flood-affected areas. Azad told IANS that Sharma, who worked as a daily wage labourer, died of starvation in the biting cold as he had no food and no clothes to cover his malnourished body in winter.
"It was shocking that Sharma died without food and clothes, a result of large-scale corruption in relief despite millions of rupees spent for flood victims," he said, adding that Sharma had to be buried as his family had no money to purchase wood for his cremation as per Hindu rituals.
"My husband died after starving for days. We had nothing to eat as no relief was provided to us because our names were not in the list of below poverty level (BPL) families of the village," Sharma's widow Rania Devi said.
Supaul district magistrate N. Sarwan Kumar said he asked the sub-divisional officer (SDO), Triveniganj to inquire into the case and submit a report.
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