<i>When will Koitori qualify for old age allowance?</i>
Octogenarian Koitori Begum of Nohata village in Sreepur upazila of Magura has been trying in vain to get the old age allowance for the last 15 years.Photo: STAR
International Day of Older Persons remained meaningless for octogenarian Koitori Begum as luck was never on her side. For the last 15 years, since the government announced the Old Age Allowance Programme, Koitori has been waiting in vain to qualify for the allowance. The programme entitles poor citizens of over 65 years of age to a yearly allowance of Tk 3,600. But for a frail Koitori, the allowance is as illusive as ever. She has a voter ID card but she is unable to obtain a birth certificate, needed for the allowance. Koitori of Nohata village in Sreepur upazila is now physically too weak to walk. She cannot remember when her landless husband Ramjan Ali died. The mother of six daughters and a son, ill-fated Koitori is now forced to live with her daughter Anna Khatun at Sarongodia village as her only son Razab Ali is too poor to help her. Anna tried to convince the UP members to arrange the allowance for her 82-year-old mother but nothing has been done so far. “We approached the UP member several times for the allowance, but he did not pay heed to our plea", said an aggrieved Anna. Mohammad Shahabuddin Ahmed, an official of Social Service Department in Sreepur upazila, said a six-member committee headed by the UP member concerned prepares the list of allowance recipients and sends it to us. Subsequently the list is approved by the upazila committee headed by the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO). Contacted, UP member Meer Hafizur Rahman, expressing his regret claimed that Koitori's name was left out from the list of old-age allowance recipients mistakenly. The UP member, however, promised to put Koitori's name on the list next time.
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