KOCHI:It was the promise of fast settlement made by none other than Chief Minister Oommen Chandy that drew thousands of people to the mass contact programme held at the Collectorate Ground, Kakkanad on Saturday. Anxieties and pain were writ all over their faces while awaiting their turn to meet the Chief Minister. Chandy started the programme by handing over a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the father of a young girl who was run over by her school van after her uniform got entangled in the vehicle as she was alighting. The issues of physically challenged people were considered first. More than 500 such persons came to meet him apart from those under other categories. Accident victims, amputees on wheel chairs, cancer patients, aged men and women, paraplegics and differently abled children, most of them accompanied by their family, thronged the venue. In the midst of thousands of grieved people, four ambulances stood apart waiting for none other than the Chief Minister, in which were persons who have been bed ridden for 15 to 18 years waiting for financial assistance from the government. After the inauguration, Chandy stepped down from the stage and went up to the ambulances and listened to the woes of these persons.For Girish Kumar from Ayavana Panchayat, bedridden for 18 years, the CM’s direction for five cents and the promise of construction of a house on it was a great solace. Ansar, from Edavanaparambu in Aluva, who got hurt in the spinal cord and in bed for the past 15 years, was another person who received an assistance of Rs 25,000 and also pension for himself and mother. Bedridden for the past ten years, Shani Peter from Moolampally got Rs 25,000 as immediate relief. Kunjambu, bedridden for the past two years, got a relief of Rs 1.5 lakh already promised by the previous government. The Civil Station premises was overflowing with thousands of people waiting at the different counters to find a solution to their unending problems. Lakshmi was in seventh heaven when she received a help of Rs 20,000 on the spot from the Chief Minister. Her husband was bedridden for the past two and a half years. Owing to his disability, Velayudhan was lying down at the entrance to the stage waiting for the Chief Minister. “For me Chief Minister’s mass contact programme was the last resort. Though I had contacted many authorities before, all my pleas fell on deaf ears,” Lakshmi said. P A Antony, a paralysed person from Nayarambalam, got an assistance of Rs 20,000. However, he said that the amount sanctioned would not meet his needs. More than 7000 people lodged complaints till November 10 and additional 4500 complaints were registered on Saturday.
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