Villager struggles to include niece in beneficiaries list

Not finding the name of his married niece in the local tehsildar record left a thirtythreeyearold villager running from pillar to post on Monday Despite attempts to convince the local cooperative bank and state administration officials they turned a deaf earArmed with copies of his niece Reshmarsquos 27 school leaving certificate as well as copies of her parentsrsquo ration card PAN card and photographs Tukaram Natu Bhavar left no stone unturned to include her in the list of beneficiaries However he failed to persuade the authorities beyond a certain limitTukaram hails from Nadal village en route Irsalwadi He mentioned ldquoBoth Dama and his wife Nami Reshmarsquos parents are missing and are believed to be buried under the landslide debris Reshma married and residing in Nadal village with her unemployed husband Santosh Basne 36 has three young children aged 3 to 5 years She is the sole survivor and the only legal heir entitled to compensation and rehabilitation benefits as announced by the state governmentrdquoAccording to Tukaram Nami Reshmas mother suffered a stroke two years ago and he brought them down to their village from Irsalwadi for regular hospital treatment Despite efforts and expenses for treatment Namis condition worsened and she remained bedridden Consequently she returned to her small hut in Irchalwadi where she lived with Dama until the endldquoI provided them weekly groceries and ration which was their primary source for daily food requirements Dama worked as a daily wage earner occasionally earning around R 300 whenever work was availablerdquo Tukaram saidLivestock and parents missingNami was immobile and Dama managed the household and livestock including two goats a cow and hens On the fateful night they were fast asleep when the landslide struck burying their house under debrisldquoReshma and all of us were at the site where the rescue work was ongoing for the last five days Though we found some utensils and groceries that we had supplied in the debris when it was cleared the livestock and Reshmarsquos parents are still missingrdquo said TukaramOpening bank accountOn Monday morning officials from the local Raigad District Central Cooperative RDCC Bank Chouk branch Khalapur taluka visited the containers providing temporary accommodation to the landslide survivors They came with a list of survivors and next of kin of those deceased and missing helping them open saving bank accounts based on their Aadhar cards provided by the revenue departmentReshmarsquos name missingThe bank officials however could not find Reshmarsquos name on the list from the Khalapur tehsildars office preventing them from processing her account opening form As a result Reshma did not get entitled to a container to stay which she rightfully deserved claims Tukaram Reshma and her husband are extremely poor and had never possessed a bank account Being the sole survivor she should have been entitled to the compensation and other benefits announced by the state government However all pleas went unheard initially according to TukaramBank official speakSnehal Pagare an RDCC bank employee confirmed that Reshmas name was missing from the provided list which prevented them from verifying her credentials Nevertheless they filled out the account opening form on her behalf pending clearance from the tehsildarrsquos officeldquoWe completed the account opening form for 40 survivors by Monday evening and the rest will be covered in the coming days We will open savings accounts for them and submit the list to the tehsildars office who will then forward it to the revenue officialsrdquo Pagare saidActivist speakActivist Santosh Thakur emphasised that it would be unfair for the state government to compensate and rehabilitate only those whose names were provided by the local revenue officials without considering the next of kin or legal heirs of the deceased and missingLegal solutionAdvocate Siddharth Ingle working for the upliftment of downtrodden communitiesn emphasised that local revenue authorities should handle such cases sensitively and accept the documents produced by the next of kin as proof of being rightful claimants of the deceased and missing victims He added that no one can be refused their right to claim government compensation based on hearsay or erroneous lists prepared by local revenue officials Attempts to contact Ayub Tamboli tehsildar of Khalapur were unsuccessful