Bengaluru: The 107-year-old Salumarada Thimmakka, the great woman from Karnataka who planted and nurtured scores of trees was all smiles when she heard that she has been nominated for the prestigious Padma Awards. However, pangs of survival continue to be a major issue for her.
Speaking out her disappointment against the state government, the environmental activist had time and again told that the state government has bestowed several awards on her but her monthly old age pension is a meagre Rs 500, with which she finds it difficult to make her both ends meet.
The state government had once declared that it would give Rs 2 cr to Thimmakka and also allocate land for her. But this remains to be an assurance.
Her adopted son Umesh has said that dejected by the attitude of the government, elected representatives and the officials, Thimmakka has stopped accepting the monthly pension over the last one year.
Thimmakka, whose house stores several mementoes and awards, had in the past questioned if she can survive by eating those awards!
This 107-year-old fighter had urged the government to help her many a time, but all the pleas have fallen on deaf ears so far.
Responding to the issue, social welfare minister Priyank Kharge has said that he will bring the issue to the notice of the CM at the earliest.
She has dedicated her entire life for the cause of the environment. After having been married at an early age, when Thimmakka could not conceive, she started planting saplings along with her husband and treated them like her own children. In 1992, Thimmakka’s husband Chikkaiah died and it is then that she stopped planting saplings. Today, 385 banyan trees stand as testimony along 4 kms road in Magadi taluk of Ramanagar to Thimmakka’s contribution to society.
