Balangir, March 24: Child rights activist expressed woes after two minor Covid- orphan boys in Odisha’s Balangir were issued a bank notice for repayment of loan dues, borrowed by their father.
Such an incident has come to the light in Phalsapadar village under the Tusra police limit in Balangir.
One Prati Priyadarshi Puta (12) and Prajit Priyadrashi Puta (8), have received summons from the SBI to clear the bank dues.
According to sources, Bidhu Bhusan of the village had availed a personal loan from Bargarh branch of the State Bank of India (SBI). Puta was posted as inspector in Sonepur at the time.
He reportedly died of heart attack during COVID pandemic on July 1, 2020. A year later, his wife Sumita Puta also succumbed to the disease on August 4, 2021.
As the couple’s two minor sons, Prati Priyadarshi Puta (12) and Prajit Priyadrashi Puta (8), had nobody to take cart of them, then Sonepur SP had handed them over to their maternal grandfather Sarathi Dharua. The two children were being brought up by in Dharua’s house in Sambalpur.
Recently, the children were served a summon issued by the court of Civil Judge in Bargarh to appear for settlement of the unpaid personal loan of their father. The Bargarh branch of the SBI had moved the court for recovery of Rs 4,99,570 owed by Puta to the bank. However, the elderly grandpa is unable to repay the loan from his limited sources of income.
Being informed, the child rights activists have sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu in this connection.
