TUMAKURU: There’s some hope for the elderly couple from Kadapalakere village in Pavagada taluk who have been living in a neighbour’s toilet for over a year waiting for the government to release funds for building a house.
A day after The New Sunday Express highlighted the plight of Lakshminarasamma and Obalappa, a team of taluk-level officials including the Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer (EO) Narasimhamurthy and tahsildar Varadaraju visited them on Saturday and promised all help in getting the funds released.
Lakshminarasamma and Obalappa, who are landless farmhands, were granted an under the Ambedkar Awas Yojana by the gram panchayat one-and-a-half years back.
They have so far received only Rs 1 from the government for constructing the house. The taluk panchayat executive officer said he will file a report to the Zilla Panchayath CEO in this regard to ensure that the Rs 45,000 the couple spent on laying the foundation for their house is released.
When contacted over phone the ZP CEO Annies Kanmani Joy said, “I have written to the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Limited (RGRHCL) to release the grants as soon as possible considering this as a special case. I have also spoken to the Managing Director (MD) Anbu Kumar over the phone and explained the situation.” The team of taluk officials tried to convince the aged couple to move out of the toilet as it is allotted to another beneficiary, Narasamma.
But when they resisted saying they have nowhere else to go, they were moved to the verandah of their relative Pathanna’s house as the latter’s family has migrated to Bengaluru and had not been living there. The couple and other residents of the village pointed out that it may not be safe as the verandah has no door, but the officials promised to fix a door. The officials also told the couple that as Narasamma had been provided the toilet under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, they may have to issue a notice to her.
Later, the team of officials also visited the site where Lakshminarasamma and Obalappa had laid the foundation for their new house a year ago.