With the death of a 40-year-old man in Jharkhand’s Bokaro once again the debate on extreme poverty and hunger in the state has opened up and the Chief Minister Hemant Soren has ordered a probe into reports of alleged starvation death, even as the district administration attributed the death to some disease.

Bhukhal Ghasi of Kamra village in Bokaro district died in his mud house on Friday, following which a social worker Dilip Kumar Sawal alleged that he died of starvation and that he has videographic evidence to support his claim.

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Sawal also claimed that he had financially helped the family several times.

“The Secretary, Food, is probing into the death and necessary action is being taken. The guilty will not be spared,” Soren said in a tweet on Sunday.

The chief minister also asked the Bokaro deputy commissioner to provide relief to Ghasi’s family and set up a camp to supply ration cards to the needy.

“Bhukhal Ghasi, who returned home from Bengaluru around six months ago, died of some disease. His limbs had swollen and the local MLA provided him with an ambulance to go to a hospital for a check-up, but he refused,” news agency PTI quoted Kasmar Block Development Officer Rajesh Kumar Sinha as saying.

Sinha, however, acknowledged that Ghasi did not have a ration card and the one he was using was in the name of his father, who died last year.

Ghasi, who was working as a labourer in Bengaluru, returned home after his father and mother died within two days in July last year due to age-related ailments.

Under the Indira Awas Yojana  he was allotted a house which is currently being used by Ghasi’s married son while he and his wife stayed in a mud house nearby, according to PTI sources.

Locals say that Ghasi’s wife used to beg as he was physically unfit to take up manual tasks. He is survived by two sons and three daughters and his wife.

Earlier, on November 7 last year, the then Jharkhand food and civil supplies minister Saryu Roy had said there is a protocol to give ration under the Annapurna Yojana to the needy.

There are grain banks and Rs 10,000 has been given to village heads who can be approached for assistance.