[Assam] 92-year-old widow of Assam official to go Sharmila way

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

        Long wait for a cheque
- 92-year-old widow of Assam official to go Sharmila way     OUR CORRESPONDENT                  Sirajuressa Hazarika at her residence in Jorhat. Picture by Monalisa   Jorhat, March 12: The postman never turned up and 92-year-old Sirajuressa Hazarika’s wait seems to be endless. The cheque from the state government for her late husband’s pension benefits has remained elusive for 56 years for this mother of seven. 
  The widow, however, refuses to give up and plans to follow in the footsteps of Irom Sharmila, the relentless crusader against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Manipur who has been on a hungerstrike since November 2000 to press for demand of repeal of the “draconian” legislation.
  “I have heard of her fasting which has attracted the attention of the world. I’ll do the same if I don’t get justice soon,” she said, her voice frail but her resolve firm.
  “I can die in peace only when I get the cheque. Now it’s not the question of money. I feel it is an insult to my late husband,” she said, her voice choking with emotion. 
  After Gauhati High Court accepted Sirajuressa’s case, the state government argued that her husband Aftav Hussain Hazarika did not complete a 10-year tenure at his job which excludes him from pension benefits. 
  The court disposed of the case based on the state government’s argument. Her family alleges that Dispur had misled the court by not including her husband’s tenure in Shillong where he served as a secretary in the education department. He was transferred to Jorhat in 1946 to the office of the inspector of schools. In 1950, he was again transferred to Guwahati as special assistant officer with the social education department. He died the following year.
  She has been imploring her son Jahid to take her to chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s residence, about a kilometre from here, as Gogoi had reportedly assured her of help. But her son never took it seriously. 
  “Given her physical condition, how can I take her there?” asks Jahid. 
  Nobody can miss the hope in her eyes whenever there’s a knock on the door during the day. “Peon neki (is it the postman)?” she asks. 
  But Sirajuressa is now ready to take the drastic step. She feels her fast, like Irom Sharmila’s, might bring Gogoi at her door. 
  “It has been 56 years since I lost my husband but till today I haven’t heard anything from the government,” Sirajuressa told this correspondent at her residence.
  Her husband fell ill while accompanying then chief minister Mahendra Mohon Choudhury to Sarthabari from Guwahati to attend a meeting. He was rushed to a hospital in Barpeta where he died soon after. Choudhury promised that she would get all the benefits from the state government. But it has remained just that -- only a promise.
  “I pray to God that no wife of a state government employee has to face my fate. My husband served the government with dedication. But what he did he get in return?” she asked, her eyes brimming with tears. 

 
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