GAURESH SATTARKAR
reporters@herald-goa.com
QUEPEM: It will be an ecstatic surprise for Bhagirathi, who is worn out by the passage of time, is unable to walk even a few steps, since she is bent at the waist and can’t stand upright. Her husband, who is aged, is blind and unable to speak. The poor couple were not getting their Rs 2,000 dole under the Dayanand Social Security Scheme from the Social Welfare Department, since she could not go to the bank to collect her dole.
Now the bank Manager, buckling under the weight of data produced by a combative South Goa MP Captain Viriato Fernandes, agreed to deliver Bhagirathi’s dole at her doorstep on Wednesday ( August 28)
A woman bank official said, “Our vans are going to each and every elderly person.” When Capt Viriato questioned why about 80 elderly persons were not receiving their dole, the staff said some of them are dead. Capt Viriato insisted that they should go to the panchayat and find out who are living and who are dead and deliver the dole to the living helpless senior citizens.
O Heraldo flagged this issue on July 6, 2024 highlighting how Bhagirathi finds it difficult even to climb and descend the four steps leading to her house since the steps are high. She goes through the motions of washing clothes and cooking with great difficulty.
Thereafter, on July 20, Capt Viriato visited Bhagirathi in a borrowed 4-wheeler drive since there was no road to her house and assured to get her the deserved dole.
“I have great trouble going to the bank. They are not releasing the dole without going there. They want me or someone from the house to go there. How is this possible? Hence I did not fetch it,” Bhagirathi had disclosed.
A combative South Goa MP Viriato Fernandes, give out a stern warning to the the Goa State Co-operative Bank, Quepem bank manager, Shailesh Shirodkar that he would raise the issue in Parliament, to ensure that 85 year old Bhagirathi Gaonkar, from Carla-Sanguem, would get her dole.
On Tuesday, Capt Viriato armed with pension data told the Bank Manager that the bank had received dole cheques till May 2024 and hence they have to deliver the dole to Bhagirathi at her house in Carla, irrespective of the rules, In response, the manager assured the MP that he would make every effort to ensure the dole is provided to her as quickly as possible.
“I will take up this matter to New Delhi and you will get a call from Delhi to tell you to deliver the dole to the doorsteps of these elderly people,” Capt Viriato warned the bank manager.
“When I saw her situation I felt very bad. Somewhere the society has failed. All of us have failed,” Capt Viriato told Bank Manager Shirodkar.
“She doesn’t have food and her neighbours share their food with her. Are we so mean?” the MP questioned the bank officials.
