RTI finds CMs relief fund a disaster
Rs 50 Crore Given To Non-Calamities …….Viju B | TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: For those who believed that the Chief Ministers Relief Fund was meant to assist people in dire straits, heres an eye-openerthe public money collected between 2003 and 2005 went to the organisers of a kabaddi competition, a womens football match, a ghazal contest, a Marathi actors fan club and a Congress MLAs religious congregation.
These are just some of the shockers that have emerged after activist Shailesh Gandhi filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for details on how the fund was spent.
The fund, which lists assisting people trapped in natural disasters as its sole objective, was registered with the Charity Commissioner in 1967. The RTI query has now revealed that a large part of the Rs 50 crore or thereabouts which the CMs office received in donations between 2003 and 2005 (when first Sushilkumar Shinde and then Vilasrao Deshmukh were at the helm) went to events conducted by institutions that were in no way related to calamities and disasters. Incidentally, during this very period, between April 2003 and May 2004, 9,000 children below the age of six were severely malnourished and 1,041 children died due to related complications in 15 rural districts of Maharashtra.
TOI first reported on the RTI query filed by Gandhi two years ago as well as the arduous journey the activist had to go through as the state stonewalled him at every stage.
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