DC comes to aid of man who made a car his abode since 15 years

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Jan 30, 2016 : After a local media threw spotlight on a  43 year old man from Noojalu who has made a car as his home since the past 15 years and was living in the edge of a forest area at Sullia, Deputy  Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim met the   man in his car home at Aranthodu when the man, Chandrashekhar Gowda told the DC  that injustice has been done to him by the Nellur Kemraje Co-operative Society which had  attached his two acre land and house for failing to repay a loan.

 

This unusual case made the DC swing into action and accordingly he convened a meeting at his office on January 28, Thursday wherein the DC assured to help Chandrashekhar come out of his problem  by  looking into the possibility of regularising one acre of land next to the two acres auctioned by the co-operative society.

The Deputy Commissioner also offered legal help to Chandrashekhar on behalf of the government  to fight his case. The DC felt that there were discrepancies in the manner in which Chandrashekhar’s  property was attached and auctioned though it was true that he had not repaid the loan.

Representatives of the Nellur Kemraje Co-operative Society which had attached Chandrashekar’s    property,  social worker Hilda Rayappan of Prajna Counselling Centre, Dr Sharanappa, SP,  Dr Ravish Tunga, pyschiatrist and others were  present at the meeting.


 Psychiatrist  Dr Ravish Tunga who spoke to Chandrashekhar for over half an hour concluded that  he was mentally disturbed. Accordingly, Dr Rajeshwari Devi, Superintendent of Wenlock Hospital was asked to make necessary arrangements for the test.

Chandrashekhar’s story : Chandrashekhar who used to work as a driver  had availed crop loans worth Rs 50,400 from the Nekraje Co-operative Society in 1999. When he was unable to repay the loan, the Society sent him notices and finally auctioned  his 2.29 acre land in October 2002 for Rs 1.2 lakh. After deducting the amount which Chandrashekhar owed the bank had  left  Rs 11000 in his account which he never bothered to collect.

Chandrashekhar  was evicted from his house  in June 2003 after which he began to stay in his sister’s house and eventually purchased a car from a lawyer in Sullia and  parked it on the edge of the Bedrupane forest  where he began to live in his car. He  then began to weave  baskets and sell them for Rs 40 per basket.

 It is learnt during Thursday’s meeting he turned down the DC’s offer to stay in Mangaluru and eke out a living by selling the baskets weaved by him at Pilikula.