First, she faced the acid attack by three animals in human guise on April 22, 2003. Second, watching her family losing the battle with the medical costs to cash crunch she pleaded for euthanasia. The media reports on her plights got the then CM of Jharkhand, Arjun Munda promise her a job.
The acid attack victim Sonali Mukherjee (27), is now living with a disfigured face and impaired hearing, of course with strangulated dreams she had nurtured as an award winning NCC candidate. As if all these agonies and ignominies are not enough, the job promise is still lying somewhere in some Government files tied with red tapes. It has been one year since the BJP-JMM Government led by Arjun Munda made the promise. The Government had to demit the office in January this year.
But the dispensation did nothing in the six months that it remained in power after the promise was made in August 2012. Since the Government fell six months of President’s Rule also passed. “I approached the Raj Bhavan twice during the President’s Rule but to no avail,” said Sonali from Delhi over phone. On Thursday she had undergone some surgery for ear crafting in a Delhi Hospital. “As of now I have no updates about what is happening with the job promise that was made to me. I tried to contact Bokaro DC office few months back. But all I got was “we don’t know ma’am” reply from the office. I am not sure if I will ever get any job from the State Government,” she said.
Earlier this week the Supreme Court rapped the Union Government for being unable to form guidelines to stop the retail sale of acid. The court also said that it would frame guidelines on its own if the government failed to do so in a week. For Sonali “it was a good thing that court has taken cognisance”. But does she have any hope that the new government set to take oath will fulfill the job promise made by the last governmentIJ
“CM Arjun Munda promised me the job but he didn’t give me anything in writing. But he was a Chief Minister what he said carries weight. He had said this in media. It does not matter which government comes to power. I am still hopeful of the job that was promised to me,” she said. While she sounded confident and hopeful she did not forget to add, “The CM to be Hemantji will understand that I am among his sisters. If he takes a considerate view of my pleas a good message will go in the society. This is all what I wanted.”