Hungry Kannauj children seek permission to die

Six orphaned children, all below 14 years, stunned officials in Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj town, about 200 kilometers from here and the Lok Sabha constituency of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple, when they sought permission to end their lives since they had no food.

The children submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate of Kannauj on Thursday with the request.

The two sisters and four brothers, whose parents had been killed in an accident a year back, met the district magistrate and narrated their plight.

“We have nothing to eat...we have been without food for the past few days...no one has come to our help...kindly help us,” they pleaded with the district magistrate.

The official, however, reportedly rebuked them and even threatened to have them arrested even as they continued to plea their case. “Have you not heard about MGNREGS....go and apply for a job under the scheme,” the district magistrate told the children.

Arrest threat

“District Magistrate sahiba became angry and threatened to have us arrested, when I told her to grant us permission to die if she cannot give us food,” said 14-year-old Nafees, the oldest of the siblings.

Nafees, a resident of Bisapur village in the district, said that he had approached the “lekhpal” (revenue clerk) for a job card, but he had sought a bribe of Rs 10 thousand for the same. The opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh attacked the government for not being sensitive to the plight of the poor and hungry.

“The ministers and officials are not worried about the problems of the common people,” said BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya. SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that the chief minister was sensitive to the issues. “We will get the matter properly investigated and the government will take every possible step to provide help to the siblings,” he said.

Huge embarassment

The incident has come as a huge embarrassment to the government as Kannauj happened to be the lok sabha constituency of Dimple Yadav. Despite occurrences of starvation deaths, the government officials never acknowledge them and usually blame it on other causes.