Hotel employee G. Vairamani of Srivilliputtur in Virudhunagar district is desperately in need of a ration card. He wants the card not for getting free rice but to save the life of his three-year-old son who has a heart ailment.
The child, Seerkazhiraj, has a congenital eye problem and a cleft lip as well.
“My wife had to give up her job in a match factory after he was born as he needed constant attention,” says Vairamani. When the boy was a year old, the couple took him to a hospital in Nagercoil to treat his cleft lip.
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That was when it came to light that the boy had a heart ailment that required surgery.
Last year, the couple attended a free medical camp organised in Ramanathapuram district where they were told that the child could get treated under the Chief Minister’s Free Health Insurance Scheme.
Only when he tried to get the family enrolled under the insurance scheme did Vairamani realise that the family never had a ration card. The family card is mandatory for getting benefits under the scheme.
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“For the last six months, I have been struggling to get the ration card. At the Srivilliputtur Tahsildar office, they have been asking for one document after another. Only two weeks back, I managed to get an acknowledgement for the application I had submitted seeking a ration card,” Vairamani said.
The couple did not bother to get a ration card all these years as they frequently shifted residence in Sivakasi to earn their livelihood.
On Monday, when the couple came to the Collectorate in Virudhunagar seeking the Collector’s intervention, they met the Personal Assistant (General) S. Arumainayagam Varagunaraj. Mr. Arumainayagam said that he had asked the District Supply Officer to consider this a special case and issue the ration card within three days.
“All my hopes are now on getting the ration card soon to save my son,” Vairamani said.