Our Correspondent, Rangamati
The Rangamati district administration has asked the Sazek Union Parishad (UP) chairman and the local village headmen to submit a detailed report immediately on the death of 18 tribesmen from diarrhoea and malnutrition due to food crisis in seven villages under the union.
"We have sufficient foodgrains to fight such crisis but it is also important to find the truth. I have ordered the UP chairman and the headmen to submit a detailed report immediately", Deputy Commissioner Jafar Ahmed Khan told this correspondent on Wednesday.
The civil surgeon has also ordered Baghaichhori thana health officer (THO) to sent a medical team to the villages. "I have sent a written order today", Civil Surgeon Samar Kumar Barua said.
The plight of the tribesmen in the seven villages under Sazek union came to light when The Daily Star, quoting local UP chairman L Thanga, published a report on the deaths and the food crisis there.
Thanga had told this correspondent that 18 people died of diarrhoea and malnutrition in the villages in May due to acute food crisis as crops from jum cultivation were exhausted much earlier.
Of them, 10 died in Tuichui and Shialdailui villages, three in Vhuachhori and 1 each in Batling, Old Lonkor, New Lonkor and Ruilui villages, according to the UP chairman.
The food crisis forced the 26000 tribesmen in the villages to eat bamboo roots, wild potato and other uneatable things collected from forests for survival, causing diarrhoea, he had said.
He had talked to this correspondent when he came to the district headquarter to seek government assistance for the tribesmen.