BJP slams Akhilesh over hunger death in Bundelkhand

Lucknow, May 4 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh BJP attacked the ruling Samajwadi party (SP) on Wednesday over reports of a famine death in the Bundelkhand region.

Referring to reports that a 40-year-old Dalit man died due to lack of food and water in Banda district, state BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak described it as "a sorry tale of misgovernance of the Akhilesh Yadav government".

Accusing Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his government of "making false propaganda of helping the people in drought-hit Bundelkhand", the spokesman said: "This government is best at false propaganda and that is what it is doing sadly with the drought relief."

Stating that instead of realising the gravity of the situation, officials are busy ignoring the deaths deliberately, the BJP spokesman said: "This was the reason that in this case the post-mortem was not conducted and cremation was done in a hurry."

A 40-year-old man Natthu died of hunger, as he was going to take relief material being distributed in Aila village. There was no food in his house for four days and he kept awaiting the government help. But when it came, it proved too late.

As the news spread, food packets and other ration were rushed to his home by the district administration.

Rattled at the death, Banda's food security officer Ram Pratap has been transferred to Pilibhit with immediate effect, an official told IANS.

The chief minister had earlier warned that any deaths in any district would be taken with utmost seriousness and the responsibility would stop at the district magistrate. "Now, we await action against top district officials," the BJP spokesman said.

With severe heat wave and an unprecedented drought, the entire Bundelkhand region has been at the focus of Uttar Pradesh government. But on ground, the help seemingly is delayed and hostage to red tape.

Attempts to contact District Magistrate Banda failed, as he did not took the calls. A state government official, however, said all efforts were underway to help the drought affected people but there might be one or two unfortunate incidents.