Nayagarh: A visually-challenged man is forced to walk 3-4 km to avail his handicapped-pension here in this district. Adding to his woes, Surendra Pradhan’s (38) mother, who is in her 70s, also has to go through the same ordeal.
She holds Pradhan’s walking stick and leads him. That means they have to trek for more than 7-8 km both ways to get pensions every month.
While Pradhan finds it hard to walk to the panchayat office, his mother’s health has been deteriorating due to the arduous journey. However, no official bothers to reach them at their house and provide them their pensions.
According to sources, Pradhan of Kakalama village under Darpanarayanpur panchayat was born blind. His father passed away when he was young. Now, both the mother and son live on pensions.
However, the trekking to panchayat office every month has become a strenuous task for them. Often, they fail to go to the panchayat office. On such occasions, the officials bungle the amount. Till now, they have not got their two months’ pension, they said.
“Every month, the officials come once to distribute the money. If by any chance, some people fail to go to the panchayat office to take the pension, the officials bungle the amount. They don’t bother to give it the next month or send it to their houses,” a local said.
“Even as the government has guidelines that the officials should reach (the beneficiary’s) doorstep to provide the pension money, the latter do not bother to reach the people; instead, they make the elderly and differently-abled people walk for kilometres,” he added.
Moreover, the whole day’s work is spoiled as considerable time is spent in walking back and forth to the panchayat office, he said.
It’s worth mentioning that an elderly woman, Premalata Lenka of Jaripada village under Ranpur block in this district died while walking to the panchayat office to avail of her pension November 15, 2018.
Though the tragedy had rocked the Assembly, no concrete steps have been taken yet to take action against errant officials who are taking advantage of the ignorance and illiteracy of people in interior areas.
In fact, there are guidelines to provide the pension amount directly at the doorstep of the differently-abled and elderly people. Still, officials concerned do not reach to the people.
Instead, they call the people to the panchayat office to collect the pension money. As many remote villages don’t have road connectivity, people in these villages are forced to trek through jungles to reach the panchayat office to avail the pension.
PNN