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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bengal’s Vrindavan test-Samanwaya Rautray

Bengal’s Vrindavan test-Samanwaya Rautray

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published Published on Jul 31, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 31, 2012
-The Telegraph

The Supreme Court today asked the Bengal government to take steps to arrest the migration of widows to Vrindavan.

“This is human problem… a very serious problem,” Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur told state counsel Abhijit Sengupta. “Many of the destitute are coming from your state or Odisha,” the court said.

Sengupta sought time to file his reply to the suggestion.

The court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately take steps to ameliorate the condition of the destitute women thronging the temple towns of Vrindavan, Mathura and thereabouts.

“Don’t wait for us to pass orders,” the judges told Uttar Pradesh counsel Pramod Swarup. “Now at least, you should want to be a progressive state,” Justice Jain said, indirectly referring to the regime change in the state.

“Spend something here also,” he said. The court seemed to be taking a dig at the splurge on statues to cars by political parties in heartland. “The entire onus is on you,” the court told the state’s counsel.

The court indicated the possibility of passing orders to help the widows on Friday, till when the case has been adjourned.

According to a study, only six per cent of the widows went to Mathura and Vrindavan for religious reasons. The rest were mostly driven by economic compulsions.

“What can we do to stop this?’ the bench wondered at the outset, since Bengal and Odisha have not halted the tide of this migration. “What immediate relief can be granted?” the court asked the lawyers for the petitioners, the National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) and the Environment and Consumer Protection Foundation, an NGO.

The bench said it would pass orders if suggestions such as setting up primary health centres inside state-owned homes were made.

Two reports were submitted to the court on the plight of the widows. One, by the court’s special committee, said that as against an entitlement of 5 litres of kerosene, the women were getting 3 litres per ration card per month. The report urged the top court to restore the supply to 5 litres.

The committee sought the court’s intervention to stop begging by the widows in the streets of Mathura.

The widows are supposed to get Rs 300, Rs 500 and Rs 50 as pension, food expenses and pocket money, respectively. The amount reaches the Vrindavan branch of a bank once in six months and is mostly pocketed by touts who get authorisation letters from the widows and claim them on their behalf. The report suggested the bank should open counters in all shelter homes once a month to disburse the amount.

The other report, drawn up by Nalsa, suggested that the women be given Rs 10 for singing bhajans in the temples on auspicious days and Rs 4 on other days.

The Telegraph, 31 July, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120731/jsp/nation/story_15793958.jsp#.UBdKdmEzD-U


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