When Jhintu Bariah, his wife Bimla and their three children died one after the other over a span of four weeks five months ago in Bolangir, the district administration had sanctioned an ex-gratia of Rs 10,000 for the family and dumped 25kg of rice at his house in Chhabripalli village, about 50km from Kantabanji town.
Five months after it, Orissa High Court has decided to consider a probe to ascertain whether the deaths in the Bariah family were because of hunger and issued notices to the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), CBI and the state government.
Ironically after the deaths, a report of the state advisory said: “Food intake for the family of five may clearly give a picture of severity of their vulnerable condition. The inadequate food intake was taking a heavy toll on the health of the entire family, which in turn was reducing its work ability, and its members were therefore caught in the vicious cycle of poverty and starvation.”
The high court notices issued on a PIL on Thursday, seeking responses within three weeks, incidentally follows two months after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had registered a case on it.
Reports indicate that Jhintu’s three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter first took to bed after extreme distress conditions because of scarce food continued in the family for nearly three months last year. Both died on September 6.
His nine-year-old son followed after remaining speechless for days. Jhintu took ill and died on October 8 after the death of his wife Bimla.
On January 14, NHRC asked the state chief secretary to submit a report on the deaths in four weeks. But no report had been received.
Meanwhile, the NHRC has sent a team to Bolangir to ascertain the ground reality after taking suo motu cognisance on February 25.