In an inhuman act, 80-year-old Kundeti Kousalya was thrown out on the road by her four sons and a daughter. The hapless woman has been provided shelter in the parking place of an apartment for the last one week.
Kousalya, wife of late K. Suryanarayana, had four sons – K. Shobanadri, Goverdhan Rao, Venkateswara Rao and Seshagiri – and daughter, Krishnaveni. They stay near Kanuru and were in different occupations.
Venkateswara Rao retired from service as peon in Siddhartha College, Moghalrajpuram.
Stomach surgery
The four sons were taking care of her on a rotation basis of two months each when she was in good health. However, during a health check-up recently, doctors found a tumour in Kousalya’s stomach and advised her to undergo a surgery, which would cost about Rs. 1.50 lakh. The sons refused to bear the cost and abandoned her on the road at Fifth Lane, Tulasi Nagar, near Time Hospital, here a few days ago.
The neighbours, who observed the travails of the octogenarian woman, rescued her, provided breakfast and accommodated her in the cellar of an apartment. When they informed her sons, they bluntly refused to take her home. “I have neither diabetes nor blood pressure. I am not even insisting on getting the surgery for stomach problem done. All I am requesting them to provide me some food and shelter in some corner. But they say they are unable to do even that,” Kousalya bemoaned.
Speaking to The Hindu , her son Shobanadri said he was suffering from health problems and was not in a position to take care of his mother. Venkateswara Rao said he was a retired person and found it difficult to run his family with meagre pension.
She was starved
“Nobody has given water and food to the old woman for the last few days. The woman was urging her sons not to perform third-day and eleventh-day [ceremonies] after her death, but was requesting them to take care still she is alive. We request the officials to intervene and prevent her from dying of starvation,” said a neighbour, who rescued her.
When contacted, Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of Women Development and Child Welfare Department of Krishna District, Uma Devi, said they were trying to convince the children to provide shelter for Kousalya. “If not, we will shift her to an old age home and take care of the woman. We spoke to an NGO in this regard,” the CDPO said.
