Visually-challenged daily wager in Sunderbans attempts suicide

Failing to exchange his hard earned money, a visually challenged man attempted suicide by consuming poison at Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas on Monday.

Family members of the victim Santosh Patra said that he is fighting for his life in a district hospital.

Patra, who is a resident of Kishoripur village at Kultali in South 24 Parganas, is the lone bread earner for his family of five, which includes his wife and three children.

Being a daily wage earner, he had somehow managed to save Rs 37,500.

His only mistake was that he did not deposit the money in a bank and kept it at home.

There are only three banks in the entire Kultali block and going to deposit money in a bank meant loss of a day’s earning for Patra. As a result, he chose to keep the money at home instead of depositing it in the bank.

Moreover, he went to a bank which was close to his house on Saturday and Sunday but his health did not permit him to wait for such a long time as there was a queue of around 200 people.

There was no arrangement in the bank for physically-challenged person like him and no one was ready to let him exchange the notes.

He was depressed as he had failed to exchange at least Rs 4,000 of his entire savings, despite going to the bank for two consecutive days.

He requested the local shopkeepers to give him some essential goods on credit as he had no food in home, but no one came out to help him.

Out of depression, Patra consumed poison on Monday morning. His wife found him lying on the floor of their thatched roof hut.

Local people went to his house, hearing his wife’s cry for help and took him to hospital where he was admitted.

The locals extended their help to the family and helped them buy some essential goods.

Ever since the demonitisation began on Tuesday night, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised her voice against the “hasty decision” of the Centre, without any prior preparation.

She also requested the Modi government to withdraw the decision considering that it would affect the poor and common people.

Monday’s incident proved that the decision of the Centre had not only resulted in loss of crores of 

rupees to traders, but also pushed some people to take extreme steps out of frustration.