MANGALURU: 32-year-old Subrahmanya Bhat sat on the wooden bench, outside Deputy Commissioner’s Office here with an empty expression on his face.
It was not Subrahmanya, but the plight of his frail 72-year-old mother Sarojamma, who slept motionless on the bench with the head resting on her son’s lap, that tugged the hearts of onlookers visiting the office on Friday morning. The feet had few toes left and many layers of skin seemed to have been peeled off. The soiled plastic acting as adult diaper kept falling.
Highly diabetic, she had nothing to eat since the previous day, said Subrahmanya as his eyes turned misty. He had been waiting to meet Deputy Commissioner for four hours and accused the staff in DC’s office of preventing the meeting. “I will remain here seated along with my mother, unless my demand for a house is fulfilled,” he declared.
The youngest among three siblings, he had been running from pillar to post carrying his mother and demanding a house for past 10 years. His father had abandoned his mother, when he was young. He had no contact with his two sisters who had refused to take care of their ailing mother. His mother became a burden when he lost his job at a temple in Madanthyar in Beltangady taluk.
ADC acts swiftly
“If I had a house, I would have begged neighbours to look after my mother in my absence”, said Subrahmanya. His letters to Lokayukta and other departments had not drawn any response. However, it was previous Deputy Commissioner K G Jagadeesha who allotted 2.5 cents of land and a house under Basava Housing Scheme as a special case to the homeless youth and his mother. But the process of sanctioning a house by Paranki Gram Panchayat was delayed as Sarojamma did not have an Aadhaar card. In a rare gesture, officials had gone out of the way to ensure that Aadhaar card was issued to her without further delay.
“We had moved machinery all the way to her ward on third floor in Wenlock Hospital,” recollected Naik of Aadhaar issuing cell. Following an appeal from public, Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumar acted swiftly to remove the bottlenecks in the housing scheme. After contacting Beltangady Panchayat Executive Officer, he issued directions to consider Subrahmanya’s case as a special case and to release money directly to the account.