A year of delay, a son, couple marriage solemnised
BHOPAL: Five-month-old Suvesh witnessed the marriage of his parents Bheem Chandelkar and Meena Yadav, residents of Alampur village of Betul district, 175km from Bhopal on Sunday, thanks to an administrative delay in getting the marriage solemnised.
The couple got married five months after the birth of their son. They wanted to get married under the state government’s inter-caste marriage promotion scheme in March 2016, but the administration took about one year to register them.
Bheem and Meena, both are physically challenged. They eloped from their homes about a year ago to get married. Bheem filed an application before the district administration on March 6, last year. As there was delay in the administrative process, they started living together with the hope to get married soon.
The administration fixed June 8, 2016, as the date for them to tie the nuptial knot. But when they reached the collectorate, they found that their application had been rejected. The officials didn’t even clarify the reasons behind the same. Since then, they had been moving from pillar to post to get their marriage solemnised under the government’s inter-caste marriage promotion scheme.
Under this scheme, a couple gets a cash reward of ₹2 lakh and they are also felicitated at a programme organised by the social justice department.
In between, Meena gave birth to the baby in November. Bheem Chandelkar alleged that their application was rejected as they refused to give a bribe of ₹3,000 demanded by a clerk in the collectorate.
“We are very poor. The clerk demanded ₹3,000 as a bribe to accept the application, but I refused to pay. I lodged complaints many a times with CM Helpline against the district administration but nobody helped us,” said Bheem.
“As I gave birth to the baby before marriage, we were also facing social boycott,” said Meena.
Last Thursday, the couple met Betul collector Shashank Manohar and narrated their plight.
Manohar asked the couple to get themselves registered for a mass marriage of physically challenged couple scheduled on Sunday.
The couple followed his instructions and their marriage was solemnised on Sunday.
Talking to HT over phone, Shashank Manohar said, “The couple came to me just a few days ago and I helped them. I am also trying to ascertain the truth regarding the bribe charge and delay in the registration.”