Mandawali building has 20 rooms, 50 children but none has ration card
New Delhi: The residents of the building in Pandit Chowk in Mandawali had made shocking revelations after the death of the three sisters who died of starvation. There are 20 families with 50 children residing in 20 small dingy rooms have no ration card. They say they have been duped a number of times on the pretext of making a ration card but in the end, they felt cheated.
"They took Rs 200 from us, some men came to us and noted down our names, age and the number of family members but no ration card was made. We have been residing here for 12 years still we don't have a ration card, They dupe us, take the money and just vanish,' said Omendra, a vegetable vendor residing in the same building.
Maya, a 50-year-old woman was found having food with her children when Millennium Post went to the building. She said that she has left hope of the ration card after the complex procedure they tell us.
"They ask us for Delhi's Id proof, we don't have any. We visited them a number of times but to no avail. All our pleas fell to deaf ears and we have now given up hope that we can own a ration card and avail the benefits," said Maya.
The residents said that the family of Mangal, father of the three girls, shifted on Saturday and ever since they did not see his wife Beena coming out.
"She kept the only door closed. She not even opened the window. The only time we saw her coming out was to either relieve herself or her daughters. She did not even bathe," said Savitri, a next door neighbour.
The room in which the couple resided had a plastic chair, a folding wooden bed, some bags stuffed under the bed, a gas stove, a pair of white sport shoes and a poster of Sai Baba on the wall just in front of the entrance. It seems the poor mental status of the woman Beena also played a role in the starvation of the girls as neither she asked the neighbours for help nor mingled with them so that they had any idea of the condition of the girls.
The mother met the SDM on Thursday after which she was hospitalised where her condition is being monitored.