IDUKKI : After 83-year-old Mariyakutty’s protest against the delay in distributing welfare pension in Idukki’s Adimali grabbed headlines, yet another elderly woman staged a sit-in protest in the middle of the road demanding her pension which has been pending for the past five months.
The 90-year-old Ponnamma Rangaswami launched a protest on the Vandiperiyar- Vallakkadavu Road on Wednesday.
Ponnamma’s son K R Mayakrishnan, told TNIE that after he suffered an injury in a mudslip triggered at a worksite in Kallar in 2016, he couldn’t take up any work.
“I managed to look after my mother somehow, and the monthly pension was a great relief to us,” he said.
Mayakrishnan and Ponnamma are staying in a single-room house built on revenue land in Karuppupalam.
“I have not been able to go to work for the past few months. In the absence of a monthly pension, we had been buying groceries and other essentials from a nearby store on credit. My mother started the protest when the situation became difficult,” he said.
Ponnamma’s protest on the road for nearly one hour resulted in traffic congestion.
However, she was sent back to her house after the Vandiperiyar police reached the spot and pacified her.
“When the news of my mother’s protest spread, we got a call from Opposition leader VD Satheesan. He asked Congress workers to give an amount equal to one month’s pension to us. They also provided groceries and other essentials to us,” said Mayakrishnan, an RSS activist.
“I want the issue to be brought to the notice of the prime minister so that he becomes aware of the pathetic condition of people in the state,” said Mayakrishnan, who has a sister settled in Tamil Nadu.