UP: Faizabad’s last rite Samaritan on death bed; yet to receive Padma award announced last year

AYODHYA: Padma awardee and Faizabad’s ‘last rites’ Samaritan, Mohammad Shareef, 83, who gave honour in death to over 25,000 people when their bodies lay unclaimed, is wallowing in penury and on the verge of death in his ramshackle two-room rented house.
More than a year after he was conferred with the Padma award on Republic Day, Shareef Chacha as he’s popularly known, is yet to receive the medallion and citation and his family fears he may breathe his last without getting a glimpse of the medal, forget walking the red carpet in Rashtrapati Bhawan to receive it from the President.
His family doesn’t have money to buy medicines to treat his critical illnesses and Shareef Chacha was barely conscious when TOI visited him at his house at Mohalla Khirki Ali Beg in Faizabad. Once agile and sharp, Shareef who would walk miles to pick unclaimed bodies and carry them to the burning ghats and graveyards, has lost his memory and can’t even remember the Padma honour conferred on him last year. His cycle repair shop, which helped him eke out a living, is in shambles after he lapsed into a vegetative state. Their dilapidated home has a tin ceiling and the house belongs to a local waqf member.
His 15-year-old granddaughter, Ayesha, said, he’s suffering from multiple diseases, including an impaired lever and kidney. Shareef's wife, Bibbi, 76, said, “We are perpetually in debt and owe thousands of rupees to the local moneylender and chemist shop. My husband is yet to receive the Padma medal as the award function was postponed due to the pandemic-triggered lockdown. We are still waiting for the elusive phone call from a government official.”
Talking to TOI, his son, Mohammad Sagheer, said, “On January 31 last year, we received a letter from Union home ministry, informing us about the Padma Shri bestowed on my father. When we received a call from Delhi, requesting us to reach Rashtrapati Bhawan to receive the award, my father took a loan of Rs 2,500 from local money lender and booked train tickets. But at last minute, we were told not to board the train as the event was cancelled due to the pandemic. We still have not been able to repay the loan taken to buy train tickets.” Sagheer, a driver by profession, earns a pittance and is barely able to make two ends meet.
When TOI spoke to BJP MP from Faizabad, Lallu Singh, who had proposed the Padma award for Shareef Chacha, he said, “I am not aware he has not got the Padma award. I will mobilise funds for his treatment.”