A family in Totopara

Alipurduar, May 13: Errors on voter identity cards have deprived the Totos from government benefits like old age and widow pensions.

Totopara in the Madarihat-Birpara block is home to around 1,500 members of this indigenous tribal community.

Binduri Toto’s age in her ID card is “ridiculous”. Her son, Khagen is the RSP pradhan of the Totopara-Ballalguri gram panchayat and his voter card says he is 44 years old.

“But my mother’s age is 47 in her ID card. This is ridiculous,” said Khagen. He said there were at least 25 people in Totopara who are close to 70, but their cards have reduced their age by almost 20 years.

“According to the voter card, their ages are anything between 50 and 55 years. As a result, they are being deprived of facilities like old-age and widow pensions, which are around Rs 500 a month. To be a beneficiary of these schemes one has to be over 60 years, the proof of which is the voter card. These people are over 60, but their card says something else,” said Khagen.

The pradhan said many of the Totos had given the information at random when government officials came to collect the data.

“These people are illiterate and often unaware that they may be deprived of benefit schemes if the information is incorrect. Some of them can’t even count. Government officials, too, did not bother to help them out.”

The errors were discovered when the children applied for their voter ID cards. The new generation had to provide their school leaving certificates for age verification.

“It was then that the mistake on their parents’ cards came to light and the age printed in them looked ridiculous,” said Khagen.

He alleged that the Totos had approached the district administration several times to rectify the error, but nothing came out of it.

A.K. Mitra, the subdivisional Backward Classes welfare officer, said he had visited Totopara yesterday to survey the loss of property in the storm that lashed the area on Thursday.

“It was then that I received several complaints regarding wrong information on voter cards. We pay old age and widow pension to people who have crossed 60 years of age and so it is essential that the information provided on the card is accurate. I have told the community to contact the administration after the panchayat elections so that the corrections can be made.”