Kendrapara: Life has become difficult for a widow here after the untimely demise of her husband. She is struggling hard to bring up her children.
Getting a house under the government sponsored housing scheme is a dream for her although she meets all norms.
The government’s schemes for the poor are mirages for poverty stricken Sebati Mohapatra, 40, the wife of the late Kailash Mohapatra of Srirampur village of Pattamundai block.
After the untimely death of her husband outside the state, she has been shouldering the responsibility of bringing up her four children, three girls and a boy.
“My husband left the village and was working as a plumber in a construction company. He fell off a building and died in Hyderabad in 2013. We could not see his body as I was unable to bring it to our village due to lack of funds,” wailed Sebati.
She has been maintaining her children by working in the neighbourhood. Due to poverty she could not repair her thatched house, and has been taking shelter with her four children in the house of fellow villager Baburam Mohapatra.
“I was facing problems in educating my three children who were studying in a local school. My eldest daughter Jasasree Mohapatra, 16, and 14-year-old daughter, Rinushree, were studying in Class 10 in RC High School at Srirampur, and my third daughter Binushree was studying in Class 6. My only son Soumyakanta was studying in Class 5 at the Ramchandra Nodal UP School. I am facing difficulties in providing food to them. How can I educate them,” asked the widow.
Although Sebati applied for a pucca house as she meets all conditions, and brought it to the attention of the District Collector and the BDO, she has failed to get her name included in the priority list for pucca house.
Collector Dasarathi Satapathy said he would look into the matter shortly.