The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : When a petitioner turned a Good Samaritan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 09, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

When a petitioner turned a Good Samaritan

R. K. Radhakrishnan

Gives old woman money to go back home

CHENNAI: Chandramouli, a cop-turned-real estate dealer came from Nagapattinam to the city on Wednesday to hand over a petition to the Chief Minister. He ended up helping a fellow petitioner in dire need.

While waiting for his turn in the waiting area near the Chief Minister's special cell, he noticed an agitated old woman. She was telling the Secretariat Security something and was not very coherent.

When he enquired, a police officer told him that the woman had come from Periyakulam and did not have money to go home. "I was thinking: God! one more problem," the Sub-Inspector told The Hindu . "I should go to the Transport Minister's office and request his staff for a pass for the woman. They may or may not oblige." That was when Mr. Chandramouli stepped in. Without a second thought, he gave Rs. 220 to the woman. When asked what made him do that, he said that the woman's need seemed genuine. "Tears welled up in her eyes. Her lips were quivering and she could not speak coherently. I have been a cop. You cannot act up such emotions," he said.

Routine affair

The Secretariat Security officials said that they routinely had to deal with women in a similar situation. "They come here with a lot of faith and hope and very little money," said another policeman. More often than not, the women cops collect money from their colleagues to send them home. "There is no mechanism to deal with such cases. We collect Rs. 10 or Rs. 20 from our colleagues and send them home," says a woman constable.

Why do people turn up here when there is an elaborate redressal mechanism at the district level? "We look only at the quantity of petitions attended to and disposed of, not the quality," says a District Collector. Which means that even a noting on a grievance directing the petitioner to another office or a remark that the request cannot be granted is enough for the petition to be considered disposed.

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