JITENDRA KUMAR JHA

Seventy two years old Kameshowr Shafi and his wife Anuraghidevi of Launiya VDC-4 are dejected as they could not get social security allowance they are entitled to when after doing rounds of the Saptari District Development Committee.

“It hurts us every time to return empty handed. It is not possible for us to walk such a long distance time and again,” whined Kameshowr, who with his old and ailing spouse had walked for miles, hoping for the allowance.

Hundreds of other elderly, widows, single women, physically disabled and children belonging to the Dalit communities from most of the Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the district have been deprived of their allowances for the current fiscal year in the similar fashion.

DDC officer Harihar Chaudhary, who is in-charge of social allowance section, said that they are pressed due to the failure of the VDCs to act swiftly to deliver the allowances.

As per the law, the first installment should have already been distributed to all the VDCs by now.

“Had the VDC secretaries been more serious about claiming their share of social security allowance and performing their duty without any delays, this situation would have never emerged,” said Chaudhary.

At the same time, Chaudhary added, the budget allocated for the social security allowances was simply insufficient.

“In order to distribute the allowance to each and every eligible citizen in the district, we need an additional budget of Rs 50 million, he said.

Published on: 18 February 2014 | Republica