Unable to pay bills, Palampur widow without power for 5 years

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, December 17

Tilka Devi (60), a resident of Rajpur village in Palampur, is living without electricity supply for the past five years. Despite her best efforts, she has not been able to get her power connection restored as she has no money to pay the pending bills.

Also, Tilka Devi, a widow, has been struggling for the past seven years to get her name included in the Below Poverty Line and other schemes of the government so that she could receive financial assistance. At present, she is not getting the benefits of the BPL, IRDP or Antyodaya schemes.

She lives in a kutcha house, which is on the verge of collapse. She has also been unable to get an LPG connection under the Ujjwala Yojana and funds for the construction of a toilet under the Swachh Bharat Mission of the Centre.

The hapless woman says she has visited the offices of the SDM, Block Development Officer and the local panchayat pradhan many times and submitted a number of applications for financial assistance but got no response. Now, a local NGO has come forward to provide her with foodgrains, clothes and electricity bills.