Officials kill woman on paper, send mail to confirm her death

Little would 85-year-old Saraswathy Amma have imagined that someday she would receive a letter that would alter the very status of her existence.

COIMBATORE: Little would 85-year-old Saraswathy Amma have imagined that someday she would receive a letter that would alter the very status of her existence. An active person for her advanced age and a very much alive woman, Saraswathy Amma is no longer living, if official records are to be believed. The irony is that she came to know of this development when the revenue officials sent a letter: addressed to her.

Saraswathy, a resident of Kinathukadavu, received a letter five days ago informing that her name had been struck off the voters’ list due to her death. “I subsist on the pension I receive and recently, I submitted a Life Certificate. After all this, I receive such a letter. I am really worried that my pension would be affected,” says Saraswathy, staring at the letter.
Her son-in-law S Prabhakaran too is nonplussed. He calls her a highly active lady for her age. “She has had a voter ID card for a long time. She exercised her franchise last election in May. It is surprising as well as amusing that officials have called her dead. When I got in touch with the revenue inspector, he said that there is a form, which she could fill to get the error rectified,” says Prabhakaran.
While the 85-year-old was scared out of wits, the officials have a simple explanation to shirk off the responsibility: error. “In order to delete double entries, we use multiple selections, maybe that is why her entry was mistakenly marked as dead or deleted. We will look into the issue and make sure her name is added to the list in the next two days,” says S Madhuranthagi, revenue divisional officer, Coimbatore south.

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