Excelsior Correspondent
BHADERWAH, Aug 19: Forced to live under rubbles of their damaged mud house, 7 month pregnant Nishu Devi, 29, along with her two physically challenged family members expose the tall claims of Government schemes for housing to all.
However, members of the poor family cursed their luck for miserable conditions they were living in.
Nishu belongs to a BPL (Below Poverty Line) family and she lived in a mud house in the remote Lamote village under Kursari Panchayat and had applied for the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to build a concrete house two years back.
She claimed that despite submitting all the required formalities to the authorities concerned well in time and running from pillar to post to get financial assistance to build a concrete house, no benefit was provided to her poor family under the scheme of PMAY which ensures concrete houses to all.
Sufferings of the family worsened on August 8 when their mud house collapsed due to earthquake that rocked Bhaderwah valley and snatched the roof from the poor family.
“All my efforts to provide a Pucca roof to my family went in vain as despite knocking doors of all from members of Panchat Institutions to other elected public representatives and Government officers, nothing fruitful emerged,” Nishu maintained adding: “I don’t know how to manage the family with physically challenged members under the open sky in coming winters.”
She said that if some untoward thing happens to any of her family members, then the authorities at the helm should be held responsible.
Physically challenged Sushma Devi, 43, sister-in-law of Nishu and her younger brother Naresh Kumar, 35, had a narrow escape when their house collapsed due to earthquake.
“When earth started shaking, I was sleeping and suddenly mud from the wall and roof fell on me. I could not run and would be buried under the debris but Nishu dragged me out the house,” said physically disabled Naresh Kumar.
Neighbours of Nishu also rued the authorities for not providing financial assistance to the poor family.
“After completing all the required formalities like Aadhar Card and Ration Card of BPL category, I handed over the file to Sarpanch but despite repeated requests I didn’t found my name in the list of beneficiaries,” Nishu said.
Sarpanch Kursari Panchayat, Sajid Mir said: “There is no denying that Nishu’s family is most deserving in our Panchayat but unfortunately, none of the family members was present in the home when survey of PMAY scheme was done. So the poor family was left out but now we have prepared her file and requested the authorities to treat the case on priority on humanitarian grounds.”
When contacted, ADC Bhaderwah, Dilmir Chowdhary said the family indeed is living in miserable conditions and their case is a genuine one.
“We are trying to locate that why the family was left out of the benefits of the scheme. Meanwhile, to rectify the mistake, we are trying to provide the financial assistance to the family under PMAY from the savings of the centrally sponsored scheme as some sanctioned houses have been cancelled because the beneficiaries do not fall in the required category of the scheme,” the ADC continued.
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