Raghbir Singh Brar
Faridkot
50 years old Gogi,a resident of Kotkapura has been waiting for the Ex gratia life cover for her husband for about 5 years now.
Her husband, Panna Ram worked as a Masson and died accidentally when he fell from a roof installing a water tank on September 29,2020.
An entry into the DDR(daily diary report ) was made at the local police station and Gogi had submitted her claim with the Punjab Building and other construction workers’ welfare board, department of labour,government of Punjab.
But till date, her long wait for Rs 4 lakh claim,according to her, has not ended.
In the meantime, she said that one of her two sons also died of illness, which further pushed her into debt.
“Gogi is my mother in law. After the death of her husband,she had applied for financial assistance. I got married to her daughter later on and I also contacted the concerned department many times. This is a tiresome process and there is a lot of paperwork. So many objections had been raised which we have removed all time to time,” said Gagandeep Singh, son in law of Gogii.
“She is the only member at home to earn something. One of my brothers in laws died of an illness and the other is living separately. My mother in law spent enough money to save her son by borrowing money from different persons. She had hoped that she would pay off all the debt when she receives the ex gratia grant as per the government scheme, but now we have got tired of this process . we think that the scheme is only on paper and I have heard few such claims are passed,” alleged Gagandeep Singh.
“We have also communicated with the department from time to time and last time, we sent a mail to the concerned department on October 24,2024. We don’t know why the claim is not passed,” said Gagandeep.
“We demand from the concerned office to pass our claim,” said Gagandeep.
Gogi is now doing labour work at construction sites.
“If the government does now want to provide the people with such schemes, then why are they there on paper? We have wasted a lot of time to complete formalities and having removed objections etc,” said Gagandeep.
