The two eyes drenched in tears of pain stood out in the dark texture of the wiry limbs of Karuna Padhan as he was narrating his plight in a choked voice.
The 57-year-old Matia Kela tribal, still unmarried, is 100-per cent handicapped since childhood as he was polio-hit and unable to move. With none to take care of him and Government yet to provide him the much needed succor, Karuna’s tragic life is that he suffers without having a home to live in and a wheel chair to move around. Rs 300 pension is all that he has to rely on.
Karuna is living in his brother’s house, which is too a thatched one with several holes on the roof. His elder brother and his children help Karuna do his daily chores. Sobbing from his drooping face between his raised knees, when this correspondent met him, Karuna said he did not know any scheme for the welfare of the handicaps by the State Government. The local administration did not care for him either. Asked if he was getting subsidised rice, he answered in the negative. Also he denied being ever attended by any officials.
The administration is yet to reach out to Karuna as he is living in forest clad Jarada village under Garhpalasuni panchayat in Kankadahad block of Dhenkanal. The tribal hamlet is without a road. Besides, he has no political lobby. Even his ration quota under Antodaya Yojana was cut as his name did not figure in the revised list of beneficiaries.
“I want that the Government gives me rice under Antodaya scheme. I do not know why the benefit I was getting for years was stopped,” said Karuna. He also said he needed a disabled cycle so that he could move.