Kendrapara: He was once a very powerful and honest Janata Dal leader, good organiser and a frontline protégé of Biju Babu. He was elected as a sarpanch, a zilla parisad member and a block chairman. But now, as the fate would have it, he is struggling to eke out a living.
A more poignant point is he is unable to provide the much required medical treatment to his six family members including five daughters and a granddaughter, who have been mentally sick. Funds crunch is the stumbling block for their medical treatment.
Meet octogenarian Harmohan Pati, a resident of Singiri (Balia) village under Bhagabatpur Gram Panchayat. He is at the twilight of his life and has been shouldering the responsibilities of his five mentally sick daughters, including two married daughters, and also another insane granddaughter.
Nobody has come forward to help the family — neither the district administration nor the ruling BJD — though he was the political guru of several known leaders of the district unit of BJD, say villagers.
The 84-year-old Harmohan Pati was the former sarpanch of Jamadhar panchayat. Later, he became the Kendrapara block chairman from 1984 to 1989. He too was the zilla parisad zone-6 member between 2002 and 2007 as an Independent candidate.
It was his self respect, honesty, and zeal to work for the downtrodden that made him a successful anti-Congress leader in Kendrapara. Harmohan used to go to block office on his cycle when he was the block chairman, though a jeep was allotted to him, said Chittaranjan Behera, the sarpanch of Bhagabatpur.
The 78-year- old Premalata Pati, the wife of Harmohan Pati, said: “When my husband was the block chairman, my husband did not want to spend government money unnecessarily for his own purpose. He used to go to Kendrapara block on his cycle.”
Her husband Harmohan Pati chipped in saying, “I passed I.A and also completed ITI as a draftsman. Even, I also worked some days at a government press and later joined Balia ME School as a teacher. Later, I stepped into politics to provide my service to the needy and hapless persons, after being influenced by the works and leadership quality of Biju Patnaik. Later, I became a close associate of Biju Babu. Whenever Biju Babu came to Kendrapara, he used to ask me to meet him and also discussed with me about political strategies in this district. He even visited my house during his visit to Kendrapara. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Roy, former ministers Nalini Mohanty, Bedaprakash Agrawalla visited my house several times.
“Several frontline leaders of the ruling BJD were also very close to me when I was active in politics. But, in the last one decade everybody turned his back and now I am unwanted stuff for them. I do not regret for that too,” said Harmohan, an asthmatic.
Pati, who is popularly known as Harmohan Sir, was the founder of Balia Women’s College, Jagulai Vidyapitha and Balia Sangeeta Mahavidyalaya. He was also a social worker.
Meanwhile, Harmohan is a worried man. His five daughters — Swarnalata Pati (54), Kabita Pati (50), Mamata Pati (37), Susmita Pati (35) and Sujata Pati (33) — have been suffering from mental illness one after another. His granddaughter, Monalisa Panda, 19, the daughter of Swarnalata, too has been suffering from mental imbalance for last two years after she failed to succeed in Plus II examination.
Harmohan said: “My two married daughters, Swarnalata and Kabita, have been staying in my house for more than one and half decades. They developed insanity after their husbands had sent them to my house. Since then they have remained in mental agony as their in-laws did not take them to their houses.
“Meanwhile, circumstances compelled me to take care of their responsibilities. I have provided treatment to all insane children of mine by selling agriculture lands. I am not in a position to treat my mentally sick children due to paucity of funds.”
Though he and his wife are eligible to get old age pension, he denied accepting it at this ripe age, which speaks volumes about his personality. Moreover, his mentally sick daughters are yet to be enrolled in monthly pension scheme. Only he has been getting subsidised food grain under NFSA ration card, said Chittaranjan Behera, the sarpanch of Bhagabatpur Gram Panchayat.
“I and Khageswar Swain used to look after the family when they were in need of our help. Most of the time Harmohan Sir’s third daughter used to flee from the house. We, the locals, several times handed over his daughter at the house. The insanity of the daughters has reached to such an extent that they used to pelt stones and slapped us,” added Behera, the sarpanch.
Biju Babu had visited his house and praised him for his honesty as a politician and his quality as a frontline party organiser in Kendrapara. He played a major role in making Kendrapara block as an anti-Congress bastion; but to his ill fate, nobody has come forward to provide him succour or treatment to his mentally sick daughters and a granddaughter.
Meanwhile, the locals appealed to the district collector to provide social security to Harmohan Pati’s family as well as medical treatment to his insane daughters and granddaughter.
Former block chairman Pradipta Kumar Mohanty stated, “Harmohan Pati was my political guru. His efforts made me the block chairman as his successor. He is the frontline leader during Biju Babu’s time. But, he is struggling to eke out his living and unable to provide treatment to his mentally sick children. We are requesting Chief Minister that he should take steps to provide treatment to Harmohan’s mentally disordered children, the district administration should come forward to provide succour to his family.”
When contacted, Reghu G, the district collector, stated that he recently came to know about the sorry plight of Harmohan Pati’s family. He would ask the BDO and CSO to rush to Harmohan Pati’s home and conduct an inquiry. After inquiry, necessary steps would be taken. If required, medical treatment will be provided to his family. Recently, some senior officials visited the house of Harmohan and conducted an inquiry. The officials assured to provide necessary help from district administration on a war footing to the hapless family, informed the local sarpanch. PNN
