Tiruvannamalai Collector acts on Class 6 student’s letter, helps her get compensation

L Karthika, a Class 6 student and daughter of Loganathan of Avaniyapuram village in Chetpet taluk, who was killed in a road accident on February 2 last year, had written to Tiruvannamalai Collector KS Kandasamy on April 16 this year, informing him that her poverty-stricken family had not received the government compensation.

Karthika, in her handwritten letter, informed the Collector that she and her siblings Chiranjeevi and Niraimathi were forced to rely on whatever their mother earned working as a coolie. She said no action was taken even after the local VAO and the RI had inspected their hut and had enquired their mother. She added that she had read in the newspaper in her school that Collector Kandasamy helped people in need by visiting them.

On reading the letter, Kandasamy invited Karthika and her mother to his office. On inquiry, Karthika said she was helped by a relative to write the letter but that she had written it herself. “I asked her to write on a piece of paper to check if it was really her handwriting in that letter. It was hers,” Kandasamy told DT Next. However, there were no funds available when Kandasamy ordered officials to issue a Rs 1 lakh cheque. “As money is transferred in bulk only once or twice a year for compensation purposes, we had no funds available. I immediately ordered officials to transfer the interest from another available fund. Initially officials hesitated saying that it would draw audit objections,” Kandasamy said.

“I told the officials that helping a poor family was more important than an audit objection and thereafter they issued the cheque which was handed over to Karthika’s mother,” he said. “As she was eligible for a widow’s pension, I also issued orders for a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 and ordered officials to see if the family could be provided a greenhouse which will be done soon,” added Kandasamy.