RAUTAHAT, JANUARY 28
Seriously injured from bullet shots fired by police during the agitation launched in protest of the attempts of shifting service centres from Rautahat district headquarters Gaur to different places of the district around seven years ago, Ranabir Singh is battling for life.
In protest of the government's decision to shift Land Revenue Office and Land Survey Office from Gaur to elsewhere, the then eight-party coalition - Joint Democratic Madhesi Front - in 2014 had called an agitation.
Singh had received three bullets in his arm and abdomen during a clash between agitators and police near Barahawa Bridge in Gaur Municipality-9.
A resident of Rajdevi Municipality, Patahi, Singh (30) has been battling for life as he has no money for his treatment for the past seven years. Another person, Bidhyananda Yadav, 40, of Rajdevi Municipality-7, who also got injured in the agitation, died in course of treatment later.
Though the government has declared Singh a living martyr, he has been living a pathetic life.
Singh said he was more worried about running his family.
"I got 12,000 rupees from Forum leader Pradip Yadav and additional 100,000 thus far at the initiative of provincial government's speaker Saroj Yadav, but now I don't have any money for treatment at a time when we hardly survive," Ranabir said.
His wife Roma Devi said they had got a lot of assurance of help. "I have met the chief minister; he gave me assurance but nothing has come out of these assurances so far. I am fed up with visiting his office and other places expecting help," she bemoaned.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 29, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
