A 74-year-old descendant of Veerapandia Kattabomman is finding it hard to make ends meet.
He has appealed to the State government to increase the ‘tyagi’ pension as he was finding it difficult to run the family with a paltry amount of Rs. 2,000 a month. V. Veemaraja alias Jegaveera Pandiya Subramania Kattabomma Durai, who belongs to the fifth generation of the Kattabomman clan, is residing at Sathathiyar Kudiyiruppu at Panchalankurichi, the birth place of Kattabomman.
“I have been drawing pension since the age of 27. In 1872, the British government sanctioned a pension of Rs. 52 for Kattabomman’s descendants. For years, I was called ‘maharaja’ and ‘samy’ by residents of our area. Now, I seek government support to protect my family. Occasionally, programme organisers invite me to deliver talks on the deeds of Kattabomman. But the money I get from such programmes is not sufficient,” Mr. Durai told The Hindu .
A request for old age pension for his wife V. Petchiammal (58) was turned down citing Mr. Durai’s pension. Petchiammal used to earn a meagre sum for manual labour under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
