Neighbours rescue starving family

HOWRAH: For a decade, not even neighbours realized that this family was living on the brink of starvation on food scrounged from roads and rubbish bins. Finally, when locals forced their way into the Salkia flat on Tuesday evening, they had a shock in store. Tapan Pramanik (55), grim and silent, was sitting inside with his three skeletal children their growth stunted by years of malnutrition.
Tapan had reportedly kept himself locked up with his daughters Phulmoni (25) and Sonamoni (18) and son Raju (21) for almost a decade. Though Tapan was seen on rare occasions, none had seen the daughters and son for years. The Pramaniks live in the first-floor flat at 4, Aurobindo Road in Salkia. Tapan used to run a cycle parts repair shop, but since that was shut years ago, he stopped venturing out during the day. On a few occasions, when some neighbours knocked the door of their house, the family reportedly refused to entertain them.
Tapan has three others brothers two of them in the same building. Locals said they did not try to help the family. Pramanik's wife died a year ago, reportedly due to starvation.
"It was a pathetic scene. The son was sitting on the bathroom floor and the two girls on the bed barely had any clothes on them. All have stunted height, probably due to malnourishment, and they all have skeleton-like figures," said Madhu Chatterjee, one of those who went inside. Neighbours also said that Tapan used to fear his brothers would grab his flat. He reportedly ventured out only after midnight to pick up food from garbage vats.
"We tried to offer them food. But each time, we were abused and turned away. They thought the food was laced with poison. Two years ago, we even informed Malipanchghara police station. But there was no response," said Pramanik's nephew Tapan. Howrah SP NK Singh denied having any knowledge of the family's starvation.
The district administration, however, promised to look into the matter. "We are working on how the family could be rehabilitated," said SDO Sourendranath Banerjee.