India: Unpaid workers starved to Death by SBS World News 5:03pm 14th Nov, 2003   UNPAID WORKERS STARVED TO DEATH    14.11.2003.    The deaths of more than 1,400 government employees in India’s Bihar state from starvation or suicide is to be investigated.    A court ordered the investigation after it emerged that the employees involved had apparently not had their salaries paid for over a decade.    The federal Central Bureau of Investigations will conduct the probe.    Chief Justice RS Dhawan said: “The state government created such conditions that forced the 1,428 employees to die or commit suicides.”    The court charged that top state officials responsible for running 45 Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) stole money meant for the staff, causing many of the units to close down.    The court said: “It is a strange paradox that while the state officials of the undertakings made merry in foreign trips and big hotels, the employees died of starvation.”    The court said it was moved by the plight of the thousands of employees who did not get paid for more than a decade, and it blamed the state government for "shielding its officials".    While hearing a petition, the court severely reprimanded the eastern state’s government, saying: "How the employees will go to Patna Medical College and Hospital for a CT scan when they have no money - the government should understand their plight."    It added: "With whom you are fighting — poor and those who are not alive... Their souls will continue to haunt you... Poverty is a curse but state government's insensitivity towards the plight of hapless PSU employees is making it more grave." Visit the related web page
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