Midsea, Subramani’s wife thrown to loan sharks

Three days after she lost her BBMP worker husband, the private financiers are already at her throat, heartlessly asking her when their loans to Subramani would be repaid
Kavitha, the widow of BBMP worker  S Subramani, is struggling to eke out a living and has little hope that the civic body would give her a job |  vinod Kumar T
Kavitha, the widow of BBMP worker S Subramani, is struggling to eke out a living and has little hope that the civic body would give her a job | vinod Kumar T

BENGALURU:  The 40-year-old pourakarmika, who took his life on Sunday over BBMP not paying his salary for the past seven months, S Subramani leaves behind his wife Kavitha who seems to have lost all hope after her husband’s death. Starting with the careless remark by City Development Minister G Parameshwara, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, that he “was told” that Subramani was suffering from illness and that could have prompted him to take his own life, to being pushed to repay loans taken by her dead husband, there appears no end to her misery.

All the problems that were to be shouldered by the couple have now fallen on her shoulders. The New Indian Express visited the tiny rented house in which Kavitha lives with her two children Pavithra (10) and Darshan (8), both studying in a private school. The house in Muneshwara Block in Palace Guttahalli is too cramped to have proper ventilation.  

“When I went to the police station to file a case against BBMP officers and gave the typed letter which Subramani got written a day before his death, the police officer’s behaviour disappointed me. He suspected that I ‘created’ that letter and signed that on behalf of my husband. That incident is still fresh in my mind. The very next day the home minister’s statement before the media, that my husband was suffering from an illness, hurt me. Why did he not contact us before making such an irresponsible statement? I do not want sympathy from the government or Parameshwara. Let them pay my husband’s pending salary. That is enough!” says an angry Kavitha. 

Subramani was illiterate and he went to a photocopy shop to get the letter typed by orally dictating the problem he was suffering — that BBMP had not paid his salary for seven months, and appealing to the KPCC chief to help him out as he had little children to take care of.Kavitha says the fact is that her husband never visited any government nor private hospital for any kind of illness in the past 20-years. But no one checked with her or her family members.

In the background there lurks a bigger problem: the `2.5 lakh loan taken by Subramani from private financiers merely to run his household to meet the very bare minimum needs, now bears down on Kavitha, who works as a domestic help, which does not yield much.Knowing that she is due for a compensation amount that would run into lakhs, the private financiers are already at her throat, heartlessly asking her when their loan to Subramani would be repaid — this, barely three days after she lost her husband.

Subramani’s elder sister Vijaya said: “My brother never had money to buy slippers since his salary was withheld for more than seven months. I gave him money to buy slippers. He simply wore a dress and carried a whistle for more than ten years. He got nothing from BBMP; and yet, he never hated his work nor missed it a single day. The image of my brother taking his black-coloured whistle before leaving his house still lingers before my eyes. I can not imagine my family without Subramani. He loved us immensely.”

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