Elderly villagers fail to get money for three years

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Nawanshahr, January 11

When at the age of 72, one expects a comfortable life, this elderly man has been forced to run from pillar to post, that too to get his hard-earned money.

The web of the Aadhaar card formalities seems to have taken a toll on this man too. Ram Krishan of Sujjowal village has not got his wages under the MGNREGA scheme for the past almost three years. He has approached every official he could think of. But he says nobody had told him what could be the reason for him not getting his money.

And he doesn’t go alone, but takes one of the neighbours who guides him as to whom he should visit.

Ram Krishan, while talking to The Tribune, said he had not got any money for the past three years.

His wife, Vidya, 70, is unsure of how she would be feeding herself and her ill husband. She said it was becoming difficult for them to survive in the absence of the money. The couple lives alone, while their children are far-away. They are daily wage labourers. Officials said they were trying hard to ascertain the real reason for this.

Joga Singh, works manager, said he was trying every method to get him his money.

“I feel his pain. Even we don’t want the elderly to suffer, and we are hopeful that the money will come,” said Singh. Jagjit Singh, Balachaur, SDM, said he had been looking into the matter.

I have asked the Balachaur BDPO to look into the matter, he added.

The Block Development Panchayat Officer (BDPO), Dharam Pal, said he had just got the extra charge of Balachaur and, thus, he would have to check the actual problem as to why he was not getting the money.

Officials said the Aadhaar card was creating the problem. Also, his fingerprints were not matching, which was creating an issue.

“But we are hopeful that his money will come soon,” the officials said. Another woman, Kashmir Kaur (35), of the same village said she had also not got the wages under the scheme. “Hun te baar baar jaan daa hi mann nahee karda,” she said, adding that she had also visited officials many times, but nothing had been done.

She said she had a child in class III and her husband was a daily wage labourer, and she did not know how to run her family.