Asenur. (Niladri Sekhar Sarkar)

Burdwan, Oct. 26: A 75-year-old widow in Burdwan has been forced to beg on the streets after her monthly old-age pension of Rs 600 was stopped four months ago as the latest census report had marked her dead.

Asenur Bewa Sheikh, a resident of Goaldaha village in Jamalpur, said her son Mainul did not look after her and the pension was her only source of sustenance since 1996.

“When my husband (farm labourer Naizuddin Sheikh) died 25 years ago, my son was only nine years old. I had to work as a domestic help to feed him and pay for his education. He studied till Class VI. But 15 years ago, my son left home in search of work. He never returned. He used to call me up for the first one-two years and tell me he worked outside. Then one day, the phone calls stopped,” Asenur said.

Asenur, who remembers dropping out of school in Class II, said some villagers took pity on her and took her to the panchayat office in 1996.

“The villagers and the panchayat made arrangements for the old-age pension. With great difficulty, I was managing with the meagre pension amount. But four months ago, the pension stopped,” she said, sitting in the thatched house built by her husband. Asenur was getting the pension under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme.

“I asked some neighbours what to do. They advised me to approach officials of the local Paratal-II gram panchayat. I went to the panchayat office several times and told the babus about the problem but none of them was willing to help. Some of them refused to speak to me while the others asked me to come later.”

The elderly lady said she was forced to beg. “Some kind residents sometimes give me money and rice.”

On October 19, Asenur’s neighbour Sheikh Abdul Halim and some other residents took her to the block development and panchayat offices and helped her lodge written complaints.

“Panchayat pradhan Pratima Mondal asked for the list of beneficiaries under the pension scheme. It was found that Asenur chachi’s name had been struck off as the latest census report had marked her dead,” Halim said.

Mondal said: “As the census report sent to us by the panchayat department showed that Asenur Bewa was dead, her name was removed from the list of beneficiaries under the scheme. We will rectify the mistake and restart her pension as soon as possible.”

Block social welfare officer Shankar Prasad Dutta said that if Asenur applied for the monthly pension of Rs 750 under the state’s scheme, he would make arrangements for her to get the money.