After viral video shows 'poor man in Mercedes' picking up cheap wheat in Hoshiarpur, the real story comes out

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, September 6

A viral video showing a man coming in a Mercedes car to pick up sacks of wheat given at Rs 2 a kg by the Punjab government to the poor has sparked controversy.

While most of netizens believed that the facility of cheap rations being provided by the government to the poor is being misused by “well-off” people, the man in question has come out with a clarification.

The government too has swung into action with the Food Supply Department ordering an investigation into the matter.

The video is from Naloian Chowk area on the outskirts of the city. The officials of food supplies office visited the depot holder and inquired about the incident.

Ramesh Kumar Saini, a resident of Hoshiarpur's Ajjowal Road, is the man seen in Mercedes.

Ramesh’s son Anoop Saini told Tribune that his father used to work as a truck driver but had to leave his job after he fractured his hip in an accident.

Anoop is a photographer who runs his studio from a rented shop on the local Roshan Ground Road, while his wife Rajwinder Kaur stitches clothes in the same shop to help her husband meet the household expenses.

Anoop said they cannot even think of keeping a Mercedes as it is already a struggle for family to make ends meet.

When asked about the Mercedes, Ramesh said the car belongs to his NRI relatives living in the neighborhood, who are settled in America and visit Punjab after every year and a half.

He said being a diesel vehicle it becomes necessary to drive the car to some distance as the battery goes kaput if the vehicle is not used for a while.

Ramesh said his relatives have asked him to keep taking care of the car. After every 10-15 days he starts the car and after idling the engine for some time and driving for a short distance would park it back so that the car remains in good condition.

Ramesh added that he had gone out to drive the car that day too when on the way he saw that his children standing at the depot to collect wheat. On the children’s request, he stopped the car and brought the wheat from the depot and loaded it in the trunk of the car.

Showing the documents of the car, he said neither the car belonged to him nor he can afford such a luxury.

Ramesh said someone had done a mischief by uploading the video and saying and that the car belonged to him.

Amit Kumar, the depot holder, said, "I am bound to deliver ration to every blue ration card holder without going into details that how he has come and how is he going to carry it.”