Patna: A woman has been making rounds of the government offices in Bihar for 34 years to prove that she is very much alive.
Fifty-two-year-old Buchun Devi, a resident of Chanpatia block in Bihar’s West Champaran district, has been battling since 1987 to get proof of her being alive from authorities but the latter have literally turned a Nelson’s eye to her merciful appeals. “The dead woman has once again reached the office. Please go back home and relax,” the officials tease her each time she approaches them for help.
Her ordeal began in 1987 when her only son Sukhdeo Prasad managed to get her death certificate issued from statistics department in Bihar to usurp her 18 kathas (more than half an acres) of land registered in her name. According to the victim, her husband had registered the land in her name owing to their son’s notorious activities but the latter took another route to capture the property.
“Whenever I reach the local block office, the officials drive me away. They say you are dead, go home. I have been making rounds of the office for the past 34 years,” the hapless woman says.
According to her, she has all the key official documents, such as Aadhar card, a 12-digit unique identity number that serves as both residential proof and identification proof, bank passbook and PAN card, a 10-character alphanumeric identifier issued by the Indian Income Tax Department, in her possession. Yet the officials are ‘not convinced’
The woman was very hopeful of her decades-old problem getting solved when she was issued an important certificate by the federal ministry of Health and Family Welfare after she received both the doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The certificate was issued in July. Much to her shock and surprise, the officials have refused to entertain this certificate, too. The authorities have failed to entertain even the certificate issued by the former village council chief Kaushalya Devi, which declared the woman is “very much alive”.
“What should I do now? I am helpless,” she said. The woman currently stays with her parents after being thrown out of home by her son. Her husband too has failed to come to her rescue apparently out of fear of encountering a similar problem from his son.
“This is a very serious matter. We have ordered an inquiry into the matter and action will be taken against the persons concerned after the probe,” West Champaran district magistrate Kundan Kumar told the media.
