Poster woman says she got ‘nothing’
Manju Devi of Bharatpur’s Daurda village became government poster girl when her photo appeared in a government advertisement on Sunday with caption: Sarkar bani mera sahara (Govt became my support). However, the woman says she got “nothing from this government”.
Devi, 33, says officials from Bharatpur took her to Jaipur on July 9 “to meet the chief minister” along with some other beneficiaries of government schemes. “I was forced to smile during a photoshoot, but I didn’t know why they were clicking my photo,” she said when told that she was the poster girl of a government advertisement.
“This government hasn’t given me anything. I have been getting widow pension under the Palanhar scheme since 2009 when (Ashok) Gehlot was the chief minister,” she said.
Devi says in 2016, she got LPG gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme after “paying ₹500 to the agency”. “I don’t get subsidy on LPG refills, making it difficult for me,” she added.
Devi’s husband Manish Thakur
BHARATPUR:
died of electrocution in 2008 along with his younger brother Neeraj Thakur. “I don’t even have a proper house or a toilet,” she said. Devi lives with her two children her father-in-law, Kishan Singh Thakur, 65, her brother-in-law Banwari Thakur, Neeraj’s widow, Seema Devi, and her two kids.
The family lives in a two-room house that leaks during rain. Devi gets ₹2,500 as widow pension under Palanhar scheme, and earns another ₹2,500 from a private school where she teaches.
Satyanarayan Chauhan, deputy director of the department of information technology and communication, said beneficiaries of government schemes were taken to Jaipur on August 9. “She is lying. She was aware of everything during the photo shoot,” he said.