Oommen Chandy’s mass contact forgets wheelchair-bound YC victim

Thiruvananthapuram: While crores of rupees have been given in financial  assistance to hundreds of sick people and terminally ill patients at the mass contact programmes of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, former Youth Congress district vice-president Shibu George, who has been bedridden for the past four years following of a group fight in the party, has been offered no help at any of them. 

Seriously injured in a clash that broke out at the Youth Congress camp in Pathanamthitta in 2009, Shibu has undergone a series of spinal surgeries as he is paralysed chest downwards .

Through all his ordeal, he  has not revealed the identity of  his attackers.  Although aware of his condition, none of the Congress workers have bothered  to seek financial help for Shibu at the mass contact programmes of the Chief Minister.

Shibu, who is now  80 per cent physically disabled,  is finding it hard to  continue his treatment under alternative streams of medicine like ayurveda and naturopathy for want of funds.

“The CM has sanctioned assistance only to those in need of treatment  after considering as many as 21.7 lakh petitions from 13 districts, but not a single legislator or DCC leader has bothered to inquire about my health for  the past two years although I had organised numerous protest programmes to shape their positions in the party and was also injured in several police lathicharges,” says a bitter Shibu.

Youth Congress state president, Dean Kuriakos , when contacted, said   he was not sure whether the Youth Congress had given Shibu any financial assistance towards his treatment.