Ranchi, Oct. 25: The ?powerful? block development officer of Panki (Palamu) is a law unto himself.

Behaving like a local landlord, the BDO has instructed that no government assistance would be made available to residents of Ulgara village. Their crime: they had confirmed that a woman in the village had died of ?starvation?. The ?intolerable? conduct of the villagers apparently provoked the BDO into declaring that since the villagers wanted to become overnight ?leaders? and complained to the media at the drop of a hat, they should also seek relief from the media.

The arrogant babu also dangled the carrot of getting two wells and a pond dug in the village, that is if the people promised to deny on camera that the woman had died of starvation. He is also accused of getting pictures taken of a field with a crop of maize in a vain bid to prove that contrary to media reports, the deceased woman had a standing crop to fall back on.

His story did not wash because Tetri Devi?s family was classified as ?landless? in government records. Nor did the mother of five have an ?Antyodaya card? which would have got her foodgrain as relief to the family. She did grow some maize on a small piece of land and the crop had been consumed long before she died.

Villagers made the cardinal mistake of confirming to visiting mediamen that the lady, suffering from tuberculosis, had not eaten anything in the fortnight preceding her death. They incurred the wrath of the BDO and when Mahavir Bhuian, another TB patient, approached the block office for help, he was brusquely asked to disappear.

The stories came tumbling out when the state adviser to the Supreme Court-appointed commissioner inquiring into food security and supply, Ramesh Sharan, visited the area recently.

Media reports, observed Sharan wryly, instead of sensitising officials and ensuring quick relief to the people, have become a millstone round their neck.

The BDO?s stubborn stand also explains why a list of 19 people, including elderly widows, blind and the handicapped and old men prepared by the Mangalpur panchayat, is gathering dust.

They require immediate help to live. But the BDO bahadur appears in no mood to oblige. None of the 19 has either an Antyodaya card or receives old age pension, which in itself is a searing indictment of the official.