Denied pension, old couple digs own grave.

​Mahabubabad (Warangal): An aged couple, who were denied PWD (persons with disability) pension, have decided to end their life and started constructing a grave at Parvatagiri of Mahabubabad mandal.

The dalit couple, Kommu Mallaiah, mentally challenged and his wife Uppalamma, physically challenged have the disability certificate, commonly known as SADAREM (Software for Assessment of Disabled for Access Rehabilitation and Empowerment), required to receive PWD pension.

They were said to have been receiving pension for the past several years. Besides receiving pension, they used to work as labourers to meet their ends.

As the doctors denied reissuing disability certificate to Uppalamma during a SADAREM camp, she was not able to receive pension since October, 2010.

At the same time, the officials told Mallaiah to reassess his disability certificate, which he got on February 7, 2014, for the renewal of his pension of Rs 1,500 and stopped pension.

This has come as a shock for the couple for whom the pension was the main source of livelihood.

‘We don’t understand why the officials stopped pension for us. We are not able to attend the camps anymore to get the certificates, without pension we can’t live and we have no other recourse except dying,’ lamented Uppalamma.

The couple was said to have visited concerned offices and attended SADAREM camps seeking issue of disability certificate and renew their pension but to no avail.

That has compelled them to attempt to end their lives, said villagers R Venkateswarlu and A Srinivas. ‘Mallaiah is already mentally in poor condition and stopping the pension has made him further disturbed.

We found him constructing grave on the outskirts of the village, prevented him and brought back home,’ they said. At least now the concerned officials should respond and issue PWd pension to the couple, they urged.