The Congress on Thursday blamed both the Centre and the Delhi government for the deaths of three minor girls reportedly from starvation. Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda said it was unfortunate that people died of starvation in the capital of one of the most powerful countries in the world, reported PTI.
“It is absolutely unacceptable,” Hooda said outside Parliament. “Both the governments, the Kejriwal government in Delhi and the Modi government, are responsible.” He said both governments cannot “wash their hands” of the matter.
Ajay Maken, Delhi Congress President, on Thursday visited the family and met the mother of the dead sisters. He was accompanied by Congress member Arvinder Singh Lovely, former health minister of Delhi AK Walia, and All India Congress Committee secretary Anil Chaudhary.
Maken said their deaths pointed to a failure of the government and the system. He claimed the family did not have a ration card and that the eldest girl was studying in a government school, which is supposed to provide free mid-day meals. Slamming the AAP government, Maken said, “On papers (only) we have Aam Aadmi Canteen.”
The three sisters, aged two, four, and eight, who died were from Delhi’s Mandawali area. On Tuesday afternoon, their mother and an acquaintance took the three to a hospital, where they were declared brought dead. The autopsy has found they died of “gross malnutrition”.
“There was no trace of fat on their bodies,” Dr Amita Saxena, the MS of Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying. “Postmortem showed the stomach was absolutely empty. It’s a case of gross malnutrition.” The report added that the children’s mother had a mental disability and their father was missing.
Following the incident, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia ordered a magisterial inquiry and said he would visit the house on Thursday morning.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Wednesday tweeted that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should be ashamed. “The deaths happened in the constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia,” he wrote. “Starvation deaths are still occurring in the nation’s capital under the Aam Aadmi Party government.”
Hitting back, AAP spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the BJP and Lieutenant Governor should be blamed for hindering the AAP government’s promise of doorstep delivery of ration. “How many poor have to die before the BJP wakes up?” he tweeted.
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