varanasi a tribe that was once honoured by rajiv gandhi and sonia gandhi is being forced into virtual extinction due to poverty and administrative apathymembers of ghasia tribe of raup village sonebhadra had been invited to the luncheon hosted by the then prime minister rajiv gandhi and sonia gandhi at teen murty house new delhi on november 24 1986 as a mark of respect however they are now living in abject poverty and inhuman conditionslocal ngo peoples vigilance committee on human rights pvchr wrote a letter to congress general secretary rahul gandhi on friday requesting for a better living condition for these people and preservation of their cultural heritage according to lenin raghuvanshi the pvchr convener members of ghasia tribe are artiest of karma and they perform their art in various parts of the country and also give theatrical performances on stage radio and television one of the tribe members rukhmaniya was invited to have lunch with the pm and sonia gandhi in 1986 he said it was shocking that many children of the tribe had lost their lives in 200102 after consuming wild and poisonous grasses wild mushrooms and extremely poor quality of rice due to acute poverty the adults somehow manage to survive the ill effects of the poisonous intakethey also faced police torture for not fulfilling their wishes he said adding that on august 27 2003 the pvchr sent petition to national human rights commission nhrc on october 29 2009 nhrc forwarded the petition case no 219972420032004fc to the chief secretary of up stating if the allegations are true the matter requires urgent attention of the authorities after the nhrc intervention the district administration distributed food grain to the affected families for their survival and issued red card to them said raghuvanshiin his letter he urged for immediate intervention to prevent further hunger deaths he also demanded allotment of land in the name of ghasia tribes under 122 4 bf of zamindari abolition act and land reform act the ghasia tribals have been living on this land since 2000 he said adding a highlevel investigation of the alleged police brutality should be done he also demanded that the raup village to be developed as a cultural village for the preservation and promotion of culture he had also written a letter to the prime minister on december 4 he said