Nov. 6: They live far away from the hubbub of urban life. Helpless and homeless, inmates of the Anath Ashram have only one prayer on their lips — a permanent shelter where they can spend the rest of their lives in peace.
But peace remains elusive as the eight-bigha plot near Cachar Cancer Hospital in Meherpur is at the epicentre of a dispute, making the nearly 200 inmates insecure. Deaths due to inadequate healthcare facilities and irregular supply of rations have added to their problems.
With the prospect of eviction looming over them, the inmates have moved the district administration for a proper rehabilitation package.
Inmates of the home, located on the outskirts of Silchar town, recently staged a demonstration in front of the Cachar deputy commissioner Gautam Ganguly’s office. They later handed a memorandum to the deputy commissioner.
Some elderly women said an additional deputy commissioner, after visiting the site, asked them to vacate the land for the purpose of reconstructing the entire ashram. They claimed that the administration was trying to take unlawful possession of the land on the pretext of reconstructing the barracks.
Dismissing the charges, Anath Ashram superintendent Tikendrajit Thapa said: “There’s no conspiracy. All the barracks will be reconstructed following an order from Dispur.”
Nayantara Das, an elderly inmate of the home for orphans, said supply of rations had long been irregular and medical facilities non-existent.
Nayantara claimed that seven persons — Mangala Purkayastha (48), Nandan Purkayastha (50), Mukunda Bhattacharjee (45), Shivani Bhattacharjee (50), Kamal Charan Das (45), Banalata Dev (35), Radha Rani Das (40) and Badal Das (25) — died without treatment in the last two months.
Baby Rani Das, another inmate, said repeated requests to former social welfare minister Gautam Roy for better living conditions went unheeded. She accused him of trying to acquire the land on which Anath Ashram stands for a Hailakandi-based NGO.
Neither Roy nor any representative of the NGO was available for comment. The district administration, too, chose to remain tight-lipped. A Silchar-based social worker said the issue being “highly sensitive”, the administration ought to address it “with a humanitarian outlook”.
The orphans’ home has been in existence since Independence.
A section of residents of Meherpur, however, claimed that the home had become a haven for miscreants.
A senior member of Cachar Cancer Hospital Society said some local toughs who had found shelter there were disturbing peace in the locality. However, he clarified that inmates of the home had no links with them.
