He paid mother’s pension money and even sold 1.5 acres of paternal property to bribe several Government officials starting from district to State level to land a job under the Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme of the State Government after the untimely death of his father in 2010. But neither he got a job nor even was able to meet the concerned officials.
He is now languishing in the Jharpada Special Jail here since July 4 for ‘threatening’ a woman employee with a knife in the Housing and Urban Development Department at the State Secretariat after she denied him a meeting with the department’s Special Secretary to know the status of the file relating to his application for a job.
Sushant Naik (23), a resident of Badanadab village under Govind Prasad gram panchayat in Dhenkanal Sadar block in Dhenkanal district, has become a victim of a corrupt and lethargic system. A four-member fact-finding team led by rights activist Pradip Pradhan which visited Sushant’s village recently maintained that this is a test case of harassment and frustration of a young boy who was pursuing to get a job under the Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme.
According to the report of the fact finding team Sushant’s father Ganeshwar Naik who was working as Chowkidar in Angul PHED Pump House expired on April 25, 2010 after a prolong illness leaving behind his wife and five children (three daughters and two sons).
While two of his daughters have already got married the elder son of the deceased (Elder brother of Sushant) left home for Tamil Nadu in search of livelihood and still bachelor who hardly comes to house. Sushant is the second and only son staying with mother and lone unmarried sister Rita Naik, a Plus II student. The untimely death of his father has psychologically shocked him a lot. With the money received from Government, he started constructing a pucca house and left it half-constructed. Then, he concentrated to get a job under Rehabilitation Scheme.
He was withdrawing his mother Bhasa Naik’s pension money of Rs7,500 regularly without giving a single pie to his mother. According to the report, Sushant used to visit Angul PHED office and other offices in his pursuit to get a Government job. He has spent huge money to get a job. “While inspecting all the documents and files available in his house, it was found that there is a lot of correspondence made between Department of H&UD, PHED Chief Engineer, Bhubaneswar and Office of Assistant Engineer, Angul with regard to processing of his application,” said the report.
After Sushant sold 1.5 acre of paternal property without knowledge of his mother two years ago, his mother got psychologically disturbed and is staying in a rented house along with her daughter.
However, on March 16, he carried his mother to a bank in Dhenkanal and withdrew Rs50,000 from mother’s pension passbook and left her in his house and went to Bhubaneswar. Since then, he had never returned to the village. “Thousands of young people in Odisha and wife of deceased Government employees are running from pillar to post to get the job under the scheme. They are being forced not only to give bribe but also compelled to undergo humiliation to get a job,” said Pradip Pradhan.