Call it an outpouring of faith or a measure of star-struck fans. But a single Tweet from Indian willow star Sachin Tendulkar could actually change the lives of many cancer-afflicted children.
The campaign's aim is to raise Rs 1 crore as the initial corpus. This would help the group raise Rs 10 lakh each year to help treatment of about 20 cancer-afflicted children. Cancer care is extremely expensive as it involves recurring costs for medicines, tests and surgery. Costs for some childhood cancers run into lakhs. "This campaign seeks to raise funds for children afflicted by cancer anywhere in India and under treatment in any good hospital," says the doctor.
Tweeting about his new drive on Thursday afternoon, Tendulkar exhorted his 2.85 lakh followers in Twitter-dom to "Join hands with me to give a new lease of life and hope to children afflicted from cancer". Fans can either chip in sums ranging rom Rs 2,000 to Rs 25,000 for the cause and get personally signed mementoes or meet the star to make higher contributions. On May 27, Tendulkar is hosting an exclusive charity dinner in the city for the cause.
Dinner for one would mean shelling out Rs 50,000 while a family outing with the Tendulkars would work out to Rs 1 lakh.
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CBI suspects NGO received funds due to Malviya’s clout
Investigating agency finds that an NGO, with which BCAS Additional Commissioner Manoj Malviya’s wife Jaya is associated, received donations from civil aviation companies
Abhijit Sathe
Posted On Friday, May 28, 2010 at 02:20:49 AM
Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) Additional Commissioner Manoj Malviya’s woes seem to be far from over.
The CBI, after booking him last week for misusing his position, now suspects that an NGO with whom Malviya’s wife is associated, also benefited due to Malviya’s connections in civil aviation sector.
The CBI has seized documents from the NGO’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai, suggesting donations were made by several companies from the civil aviation sector during the past four years. The CBI had also summoned functionaries of the NGO for questioning recently.
Malviya, a 1986-batch IPS officer from West Bengal, was booked last week for accepting pecuniary benefits in office. The CBI allegedly found that GVK Limited and Mumbai International Airport Limited footed bills of 5-star hotels where Malviya stayed during 10 visits to Mumbai.
Being second from top in the BCAS hierarchy, a body that has a say in virtually every activity related to civil aviation, Malviya allegedly enjoyed tremendous clout in the sector. His word counted in deciding parking bays for airlines, finalising flight schedules, and even issuing entry passes to aviation employees.
The CBI has now found that some other civil aviation companies had paid substantial donations to the NGO where Malviya’s wife Jaya worked. “The NGO is run by a big industrial group and has offices spread across the city. Jaya has been associated with the NGO since 2006 as a fundraiser,” CBI sources said.
Investigating officials are surprised to find that most of the donations received by the NGO since Jaya joined have been from aviation companies, particularly those at Mumbai and Hyderabad airports.
The CBI also found that though the NGO has offices all over the country, these companies donated sums only at the NGO’s Delhi office where Jaya worked. “We questioned the NGO about the source of the donations and will also quiz the donors soon,” sources said.
According to CBI sources, donors will be asked to submit details of donations made to organisations other than the one Jaya is associated with. “If investigations show the donors gave preferential treatment to this NGO, we’ll add this to evidence to show how the IPS officer misused office and was benefited,” sources said.
The NGO is run by a big industrial group and has offices spread across the city. Jaya has been associated with it since 2006 - A CBI source
The case so far
Manoj Malviya has been booked by CBI under Section 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Public servant obtaining valuable thing, without consideration from person concerned in proceeding or business transacted by such public servant). He has not been arrested yet.
The CBI found that Malviya stayed in 5-star hotels in Mumbai on 10 occasions in nine months, though he could have stayed in government accommodation. It also found that his hotel bills were paid by GVK, MIAL and AAI.
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Identity will help the poor participate in economic growth: Nandan Nilekani
Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani spoke to ET soon after the launch of Aadhaar the new brand identity for the UID project. Excerpts:
What difference does this make to the country?
Fundamentally, lack of identity is an obstacle, especially for the poor and the marginal in India to participate fully in the economic and social growth. Identity becomes a bottleneck if one wants to have a ration card, driving licence, passport, bank account or a mobile connection. This problem is compounded as large number of people do not have birth certificates. UID number will help bring financial inclusion to the poor, regardless of where they live and give better mobility within the country. It will enable poor residents to access multiple resources including education, health and financial services.
How can the UID help in financial inclusion?
The government plans to issue 600 million Aadhaar numbers over the next four-and-a-half years through various registrar
agencies. UIDAI is also in talks with banks to make sure that the Rs 100 is directly credited to people’s bank accounts. This way, people who are not financially included will also be allotted a bank account number.
NGOs will act as introducers to make sure enrolment happens across the country. Have you identified any NGO so far?
We are having a series of civil society outreach initiatives. We would like to work with NGOs who will act as outreach partners. We have been conducting meetings in Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Delhi on the same. They know these people and are aware of the challenges and will work with us and registrars to enrol the homeless into our system.
A child’s fingerprint do not develop till the age of 15. How are you tackling this problem?
There are many reasons for taking the iris test. One reason is, we can start biometrics at a younger age. We’ll be posting a document on our website shortly, which will explain the iris rationale. The identity number will help get a child admission in school. Other biometrics will be added once the child attains the age of 15.
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Who represents Afzal Guru: Fight on between NGO and lawyer
Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru has become a cause of a war between a human rights NGO and a lawyer, with both claiming to represent him in his fight against death sentence.
The war came out in the open after N D Pancholi, a human rights activist and a lawyer, claimed to the media that Guru had petitioned the Supreme Court for expeditious disposal of his mercy plea as his "solitary confinement was worse than death".
Pancholi made the statement, saying he was representing Guru in his fight for mercy petition which is under consideration of the government.
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), an NGO led by S A R Geelani, who was acquitted in the 2001 Parliament attack case, soon came out with a statement rubbishing Pancholi and his claim to be Guru's lawyer.
Geelani, the Working President of CRPP, claimed that Pancholi had nothing to do with the case and Guru was being represented only by his NGO.
He claimed that that Pancholi had never appeared for Guru in any court.
An associate professor in Delhi University, Geelani claimed the CRPP was representing Afzal and Pancholi had nothing to do with the case.
Pancholi rejected this contention. "How can they (CRPP) say that? I have the 'vakalatnama' and I met him through proper channels. Then how can they say that I am not his counsel? Whose cause are they serving," Pancholi told PTI.
Incidentally, Geelani and Pancholi were founding members of an NGO Society for Protection of Detainees and Prisoners Rights (SPDPR) from which the lawyer resigned following differences.
Countering Pancholi, Geelani told PTI that Pancholi was given 'vakalatnama' by the SPDPR when he was its member to meet Guru in jail. "After that he had resigned and even Guru had objections to him," he claimed.
"If he had gone to the President's House with mercy petition, it was the SPDPR which sent him. We sent him not as his counsel," he said.
Pancholi dubbed CRPP's statement as "mischievous" and said he had "the approval from Guru to say about this application."
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