Fire burnt house in 2019, Govt. announced relief that the victim never received; “DC says it got lapsed,” Sikha Das of Karimganj

On one dreadful night in 2019, Sikha Das’s home in Nilmani Road, Karimganj caught fire and burnt down all her belongings and important papers. Since then, she has been running from post to pole to get the announced relief for that accident. Even after more than 900 days or almost 2.6 years, the amount that was sanctioned in their names didn’t reach their account. She climbed many stairwells, showing up at many given dates, from lower officers to higher offices, the common Indian citizen didn’t receive the “sanctioned” sum of money.

On September 29, 2019, when Sikha Das’s brother-in-law parked the e-rickshaw on their lawn to change it at the end of the day, the electricity fluctuated and there was a short-circuit after a few hours. While the entire family was asleep, the rickshaw was set on fire from that short-circuit and with no time it spread to their house. It was too late before they could do anything to save their property and belongings. It was not just Sikha Das’s property, the fire also destroyed parts of the property of her two brothers-in-law. Aurobindo Das and Anjan Das, the two brothers-in-law of Sikha Das also were affected as their shop and kitchen were ruined by the fire.

After intervention of the local MLA and MPs as they were extremely poor, her land documents were sent to the Circle Office for the approval of sanctions in their names. Following months of verifying documents and office visits, one-day Sikha Das got a call from the circle office stating relief of ninety-five thousand rupees was approved in her name and five thousand each for two of her brother-in-law. This was the call Sikha was waiting for for months and finally, she was about to receive the bare minimum compensation she deserves. She went to the Circle Office only to find out that the sanction got cancelled because of a complaint on her property. She requested the circle officer to verify her paper and inspect the property if required, but that didn’t affect their decision.

Helplessly, she knocked on many doors including that of the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Karimganj. After roaming around many tables of that office and showing her papers to various departments of that office, she got the chance to meet the Deputy Commissioner. She thought the DC would solve all her problems and money was already sanctioned in her name. She says, the DC saw her paper and assured her help.

Speaking about the whole two year-long episode, Sikha Das said, “I thought my final resort was DC sir, so I came to his office two weeks back and he assured me that I deserve this relief and I will receive this amount soon. He asked me to revisit after 15 days and my work would be done. So did I. I came to his office exactly after 15 days, but he said the sanction got lapsed. There is nothing else he could do”.

Questioning the authorities, she said, “How can a sanctioned relief get lapsed within 15 days? It is not like I was not accessible and due to a communication gap, the papers were rejected. I was in constant touch with the office and only I know how many times I had to come here and how many tables I had to run to. Where did the money disappear”?