104-year-old ‘dead’ according to voter list; not getting old-age allowance

The old-age allowance of 104-year-old Lokman Hossain Mondol, from Pabna's Sujanagar upazila, has been halted by the local office of Social Welfare Department as the Election Commission's updated voter list marked him as "deceased".

Lokman told The Daily Star that he did not find his name on the list when applying online for the allowance.

When he inquired, the department informed him that they closed his file since the voter list claimed that he is no more, said our Pabna correspondent.

"Last year, I collected my allowance for July-September period. When I went to collect allowance recently, I got to know that my name was dropped from the list. Also, my file was closed," Lokman said.

Satbaria Union Parishad Chairman SM Shamsul Alam said, "A living man was declared dead. It is Election Commission's mistake."

Sujanagar upazila social welfare officer Md Nazmul Hasan told The Daily Star that the old-age allowance programme is being operated digitally from this year.  Lokman's name was not enrolled in the Election Commission's latest voter list. So, his name was dropped, he said.

Fatema Khatun, a Sujanagar upazila election officer, said that this is nothing but a mistake, which can easily be revised.

The person who collected information for updating the voter list missed Lokman's name, she said.

"Lokman has applied to re-enroll his name in the latest voter list, and the problem will be solved soon," she added.