West Bengal government today denied there were any "starvation deaths" in the closed Raipur Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri and referred to the medical reports suggesting cardiac arrests as one of their causes even as Left Front staged a walkout from the Assembly on the issue.
"Medical reports show that the deaths are due to cardiac arrests, intracranial hemorrhage during delivery, low birth weight for newborns but not related to starvation," state Parliamentary Affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said.
On the Left Front staging a walk out from the state Assembly today in this connection, Chatterjee said that at a time when this government was trying to reach to the families of those deceased in the closed tea gardens, there was an attempt to disturb the process.
Meanwhile, Food and Supplies Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick said there are 20 closed tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district with around 92,000 heads, who get 1250gms of rice, 750gms wheat at Rs two per kg, 125gms of sugar and 750ml of kerosene oil per week.
He said the number of open tea gardens in the district is 126 with total dependent heads of 3,79,188.
Six persons, including two children, died of malnutrition in Raipur tea garden in the past seven days due to lack of steady supply of quality food grains. The tea garden is lying closed since 2003.
