Pingalwara to rescue of 2 lost Karnataka residents

GS Paul
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, February 4

A team of Pingalwara Home has traced the families of two Karnataka residents — Chanderappa (55) and Chitra Kumari CM (32) — who landed up here inadvertently about five months back. Both of them are mentally unfit.

On Thursday, Chanderappa was elated to see his son Manju Nath and other relatives who came to take him home, while Chitra, who also tells her name as Manjit Kaur, wasn’t fortunate enough to have her family here. So, Pingalwara members decided to hold her back till some alternate arrangement was made to send her home safely.

Inderjit Kaur, Pingalwara head, said Chitra was admitted by the Sultanwind SHO on September 30 last year and Chendrappa a day later by the Jalalabad police. At that time, both of them were unable to disclose their credentials due to their mental condition.

“During treatment, our counsellors gained their confidence and managed to procure information about their families. Chitra said her father was no more and was left with mother and a brother. Her marriage lasted for around a year. We procured her family picture and she recognised them all. Since, no one from her family came to pick her up, we will send her home under the protection of our team,” Inderjit added.

Chitra said: “I heard of Golden Temple and medical facilities in Amritsar. So, I boarded a train and reached here. When I was roaming in streets, a cop caught me and brought me here,” she added.

Meanwhile, Gulshan Ranjan, a social worker, said a student of Karnataka’s Gulbarga University helped us locate their families. “The student had come to Pingalwara in 2010 to do internship. We traced his number and sent their photographs to him, which helped him in locating their families,” he added.