Daijiworld Media Network - Shivamogga (SP)
Shivamogga, Mar 2: The mother of Vishwanath Shetty, who died during the disturbances that happened in the city after Popular Front of India (PFI) organized founding day celebrations and took out a procession, is now roaming around streets searching for rags that can be sold to scrap dealers to eke out a living.
There were many who announced that they will look after Meenakshamma, mother of slain Vishwanath Shetty, like their own mother. However, none of them kept the promise and neither have they lent a hand of help to the distressed lady. Her house has no power connection and no drinking water supply. Meenakshamma, who is past 60, cooks the rice she gets from the fair price shops by putting together waste and foliage to start a fire. Her life is hard but she is determined to survive.
Meenakshamma and Vishwanath Shetty (inset)
Vishwanath Shetty's wife, who too was reeling under the burden of abject poverty, had died of jaundice two years back. Her son, Adirya, is a seventh standard student at Koppa, the native place of his mother. After her daughter too died due to ill health, Meenakshamma has become a loner and orphaned.
Clashes had erupted during the procession organized on the occasion of the PFI founding day convention held here in 2015. The PFI activists had killed Vishwanath Shetty from Alkola near Gajanur. Thereafter, the pro-Hindu groups had organized Shivamogga city bandh and large scale protests. The protests had spread all over the state. Those who doled out big promises and delivered emotional addresses left the family high and dry once the protests died down.
Vishwanath's mother is fighting even for a morsel of food now and she is not even getting the Sandhya Suraksha monthly pension. To be able to survive as long as she lives, Meenakshamma uses ten kg rice she gets every month. She collects rags from waste dumps or roadsides and gets ten to twenty rupees a day by selling them. Out of this meagre amount, she somehow has to get vegetables, provisions, blood pressure medicine etc, she says, with tears rolling down her eyes.
"If my son was alive, I would not have been like this. For two years i roamed from one office to the other for pension but failed. Power supply was severed for non-payment of bill three years back. Water connection was also taken off as I am unable to pay the bill. I do not have a gas cylinder. I start a fire by putting together some dry leaves and then cook rice," Meenakshamma explains.
Learning about the pitious condition of the lady, JD(S) leader M Srikanth, visited the spot and arranged for power and water connection and to paint her house. He also gave the responsibility of following up her pension application to party activists. He assured that all arrangements will be made for a comfortable stay for the woman. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Yuva Sene activists have arranged for gas connection, stove, and provisions for three months. Yuva Sene district president, Kiran Kumar, said that the Sene will take the responsibility of providing her things and medicines. However, BJP leaders, activists of the Sangh Parivar and others who shouted from the rooftop that they would look after Meenakshamma's family are not to be seen anywhere thereafter.