NAUSHAHRO FEROZE, Oct 26: Nearly 2,000 widows and other legal heirs of deceased government employees living in the district have been running from pillar to post for years for disbursement of their dues under benevolent funds for years, it is learnt.

The kith and kin of the deceased employees of various government departments including police, food, highways, irrigation, education, etc are not being paid their monthly dues owing to unavailability of sufficient funds, according to sources.

The families, coming for low-income group, are forced to live a miserable life and many of them are facing abject poverty. With the hope of getting at least a smaller amount, they travel to the offices concerned from far-flung areas but have to turn back with sheer frustration.

Some of them Ms Umrahzadi, Ms Zarina, Ms Hameeda and Ms Sadori, who were here to make queries about their dues told this reporter that they lived far away from Naushahro Feroze city and had to meet repeatedly the officials concerned for payment of the dues but every time they excused and said the required funds would be available ‘next time’.

They said that it was not at all affordable for them to travel again and again from their hometown to the city as it involved a long and expensive journey and a great deal of inconvenience. “We have to borrow more money from our relatives for the huge travel expenses and this results in accumulating debts,” one of them said.

“It is a mental torture… we endure all this fatigue for a paltry amount of Rs1,250 a month,” another one said, adding, even if we get the amount after a lapse of a year or two and this, too, after several rounds of the office, it means nothing.”

Naushahro Feroze Deputy Commissioner Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah was not available for comment but a member of the benevolent funds committee, Additional Deputy Commissioner-II, Sikander Ali Khushik, told this reporter that the lapse was because of a shortage of funds.

He said the committee had now decided to disburse 17 per cent of the dues after upcoming Eid.

He confirmed that there were 1,988 cases of monthly benevolent fund pending disbursement, adding that the total dues till the current month amounted to Rs98.662 million as against the available funds of Rs15 million.

The ADC further said that there were 542 cases of marriage grant, 217 cases of funeral arrangements and 920 cases of prolonged illness pending for three years.