It was on March 17, 2005 when Jean Ziegler, then UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, wrote to the then Minister for External Affairs Natwar Singh requesting him to look into cases of numerous starvation deaths, malnutrition of children and cases of exodus from village in search of food, in the two districts of Murshidabad and South Dinajpur.

The note, which cited several examples and referred to reports, also mentioned about the poor infrastructure, lack of heath and education facilities in the two districts.

The letter came through the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva and was referred to the MHA which in turn requested the state government to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

But more than four years elapsed but the state government sent no report to the MHA.

On December 18 last, R K Sharma, a deputy secretary in the MHA, wrote to state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen requesting him to conduct the inquiry fast and submit the report.

It also said as the matter was long overdue, it was being pestered by the Ministry of External Affairs to submit the report as early as possible.

On December 29, Sen wrote to the two DMs asking them to file a report soon.

Interestingly, the DM of South Dinajpur district Ashok Banerjee says his predecessor had already filed a report to the state government.

“Earlier also, the state government asked for a report and my predecessor filed it. There were some deaths but we can not call them starvation deaths. However, I am soon sending a fresh report on the situation as also the remedial measures taken by us,” Banerjee said.