PATNA, MAY 21: After endless hours of suffering and neglect, Saroj finally gave up the fight. In her death, she pointed an accusing finger at the Bihar administration, a callous and insensitive institution.Saroj's is a story which has come to become so typical of the state. A physically disabled matriculate, she found a job when the Laloo Prasad Yadav Government began Charwaha Vidyalayas. But she never got failed. Later her service was terminated as the officials did not recognise the certificate of disability the civil surgeon of Lohardaga gave her.It was a jolt to her. After taking up several petty jobs since the death of her sister, who looked after her, the Vidyalaya was the last outpost of hope for her.As her repeated requests did not evoke any response anywhere, the woman from Latehar in Palamau landed up at the entrance of the chief minister's office. Three days she waited outside with the hope of getting an audience with Rabri Devi. Finally, on May 19, when the securitymen asked her to leave, he did not go back to Palamau. She took out a bottle of poison and drank from it.The securitymen took her to the Patna Medical College Hospital. There the story took another twist which could perhaps happen only in the state. The doctors were on strike. And there was no one to attend to her. After two days of pain and suffering, she breathed her last today.Saroj is one of the many victims of the Charvaha Vidyalayas, started with much fanfare and even inspired veterans such as West Bengal's Jyoti Basu. Now the Vidyalayas are on the verge of closure. The staff has not been paid. They are starving - but that's the way things are here and they are perceived normal by the administration and the politicians.
