Express News Service
PATNA: Raju Prasad is a beggar with a difference.
Prasad, (40), a resident of Bihar’s Bettiah town in West Champaran district, can be heard asking people to pay him digitally if they don’t have ‘chutta paise’ (change in coins).
“If you don’t have change in coins, don’t worry. You can pay me through Phone Pe or any other eWallet. Now I have availed the facility of digital payment,” Prasad can be heard telling the passers-by who avoid paying him on the pretext of having ‘no chutta or khulle paise’.
Prasad has been begging in the vicinity of Bettiah railway station since he was 10.
An ardent supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India Campaign’, Prasad opened a bank account recently.
“Though I had my Aadhar Card, I don’t have a PAN Card, which delayed the process to open an account in the bank. But now I have availed the facility of digital payment despite being a beggar,” he boasted.
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Awadhesh Tiwari, a resident of Bettiah town, said Raju Prasad’s father Prabhunath Prasad lived with his family at Baswaria Ward 30 in Bettiah town. After the death of the only breadwinner in the family, his son Raju Prasad started begging at the railway station.
“He has been doing it for the last three decades. Being a bit lazy and ‘mand buddhi’, he adopted begging as his source of livelihood and people used to support him considering him to be an orphan,” Tiwari, a retired public servant said.
Earlier, Raju Prasad was an admirer of former union railway minister Lalu Prasad. He was provided meals by the railway pantry car staff whenever the train stopped at Bettiah railway station. The practice continued till 2015.
“Now, I have to pay for my meal from the local roadside dhaba,” he said.
Bettiah station superintendent Anant Kumar Baith said begging is not allowed on railway platforms. “He may have been begging outside the railway station premises for his livelihood,” he added.
