Ponnani: Strange are the ways of the officialdom. Delays, apathy or excesses on the part of public servants alienate the public. One such case of official inertia has been reported from Ponnani in Malappuram district. The reply to a request seeking aid for medical treatment from the Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund has reached the family three years after the applicant died!

The shocking action is on the application of now-deceased Puzhambrath Narayanan of Cheruvaykkara locality of Ponnani. His family has received a letter from the Eezhuvathiruthi Village Office asking the applicant to produce certain documents which are to be filed along with the application before the January 4.

Narayanan was a cancer patient. There was no response on the application he had submitted himself when he was alive. He died in 2019. Strangely, it was when the family had forgotten about the medical aid request that the letter from the Village Office reached them. The Village Office is hardly 2 kilometres away from the house where Narayanan resided.

The letter says the application will not be accepted unless the medical certificate in a specified form, copies of the Aadhaar card, ration card, and bank passbook are submitted immediately.