Komaram Sombai, the granddaughter of Adilabad’s most illustrious son, the legendary Gond martyr Komaram Bheem cannot afford an LPG connection. Her great lineage also does not help her in repaying the paltry Rs. 15,000 as outstanding dues on her old institutional crop loan.
The pitiable condition of the descendent of the Adivasi icon came to the fore during the intensive household survey conducted at her village Jodeghat in Kerameri mandal on Tuesday. Nevertheless, she does not seem to be overly bothered about the government’s ‘neglect’ of the progeny of her grandfather who was martyred for rebelling against the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1940 demanding the rightful rights for his compatriots on forest land.
Bheem had two wives, Bheembai and Sombai, from whom he had a daughter Chahkati Rathubai and son Madhav Rao respectively. Rathubai is the mother of Komaram Sombai and her late sister, while Madhav Rao sired three sons and two daughters.
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“I have only one acre of land,” reveals the widowed Sombai who also is a worker in the mid-day meal section of the local hostel. “With great difficulty I repaid half of the Rs. 30,000 of crop loan; actual loan was Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 10,000 accrued in the shape of interest,” she adds talking of her precarious financial condition and wondering if she will be eligible for the impending loan waiver.
Sombai earns a measly Rs. 3,000 per month from her work in the hostel which is not enough to support her three sons and two daughters. “I am not left with sufficient time to take up some extra work,” she laments.
The government has given the martyr’s granddaughter an Indiramma house and she is a member of the local self-help group. She leaves her home for Kerameri mandal headquarter once a fortnight to visit the Sunday shandy.
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