'Look Into Matter': FM Sitharaman Intervenes After 17-yr-old Covid Orphan Gets Notices on Rs 29L Loan

After the emergence of the heart-wrenching story of a Covid orphan being ‘troubled’ by notices for repayment of a loan left behind by her father, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman intervened and asked officials to look into the matter.

Vanisha Pathak, the Bhopal topper who wrote the poem ‘I’ll stand tall without you, Papa’ after scoring 99.8 percent in her Class X board just months after losing both her parents to Covid, is now dealing with legal notices on a home loan her father took out, the Times of India reported.

However, Sitharaman took notice of the issue, and sharing the report on Twitter, tagged the Department of Financial Services and LIC India in her tweet, and asked for a brief into the current status of the matter. Social media users, who have been appealing for help for the orphans, now hope that Vanisha and her younger brother may be provided with some solid respite from authorities.

Her father Jeetendra Pathak was an LIC agent and had taken a loan from office. Since Vanisha is a minor, LIC has blocked all his savings and the commissions he would get every month. Vanisha told Times of India that she has written several times to the authorities to give her time to repay the loan as she is 17 but that there was “silence from the other end”.

The local LIC officials were quoted in the report as saying that her application had been sent to the central office, but Vanisha said she had not received any intimation about the same.

She began receiving legal notices in her father’s name, advising her to pay the debts or “be prepared to face legal action.” On February 2, 2022, she received the final legal notice to repay Rs 29 lakh.

Vanisha’s parents died of Covid during the devastating second wave in May 2021. She looked at her young brother and decided she had to fight through her shock and agony, eventually scoring close to a perfect 100 on her Class X board, the report said.

“My father was a member of Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) club, a renowned insurance club. Both my father Jeetendra Pathak and mother Seema Pathak passed away due to Covid in May 2021. I and my 11-year-old brother Vivan are minors and Covid orphans. Since we are under-age, all my father’s policies and his monthly commissions could not be withdrawn as per the rule. With all of the economic and financial income sources blocked, we have no source of income. Thus, all the repayment of the debts can be done only when I turn 18,” Vanisha said in her letter.

However, LIC had not even responded to her letter, the report said. Her maternal uncle, Prof Ashok Sharma, who is currently taking care of the children, said he did not have enough resources to pay back the loan. “Jeetendra was a bigleague LIC agent and it was expected that the insurance company would reciprocate. We have not received any- thing in writing from LIC that they have considered our request,” he told Times of India.

Meanwhile, LIC officials, when contacted by the publication, said Vanisha’s request had been sent to the higher-ups at the central officer. “He was my agent. Vanisha’s uncle sent an application and I have forwarded it to the higher authorities. Though there was nothing in writing, I had informed the family that they will not get any further notices till the time she completes 18 years of age,” LIC’s development officer Sanjay Barnwal was quoted as saying.

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