Family members pay tribute to Peter Thangaraj on his death anniversary in Bokaro on Thursday. Telegraph picture

Bokaro, Nov. 25: The cricket-crazy nation forgets its soccer greats easily.

The government’s step-motherly attitude towards football came to the fore yet again with Peter Thangaraj’s family claiming that they had been living a hand-to-mouth existence ever since the soccer great’s demise two years ago. The claims were made on the second death anniversary of the legendary footballer today.

Thangaraj’s family — wife Alphoncia Raj (65), only son Harry Anthony Peter (37), daughter-in-law Annie Peter (32) and two granddaughters — live in a quarter of Bokaro Steel Limited at Sector-3 (B). The family has no permanent source of income and survives on the money they get from renting out their old car.

“The car is very old and its maintenance cost has also shot up over the years. Whatever money we make by renting out the car is not sufficient to sustain such a large family. And with the cost of daily necessities increasing with every passing day, it’s difficult to run the household,” said Harry, who also played football and had represented the state in junior nationals (1986 and 1989) in unified Bihar.

“I had met the then Bokaro deputy commissioner, Nitin Madan Kulkarni, about five months ago and sought a job. He asked me to submit a biodata to sports officer Sarvar Imam. But I am yet to get a job as I could not hand over the biodata to the DC. In the meantime, both were transferred,” Harry, who could pursue education only till the intermediate level because of his preoccupation with the game, said.

Thangaraj’s widow Alphoncia added she was not concerned about herself, but was worried about the future of her granddaughters. “We cannot even provide proper education to them because of our financial status,” she said.

Asked about how they observed the day, Harry said: “We visited my father’s grave this morning and offered flowers. We also cooked some of the dishes he liked and put them before his photo.”

An Arjuna Award recipient, Thangaraj had represented India in the Olympics in 1956 and 1960 and in Asian Games in 1958, 1962 and 1966. Born in Hyderabad, he played for East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting and moved to the steel city in early 1970s when Bokaro Steel offered him a job and made him the coach of its football team.