The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : NGO protests against `arbitrary cut' in grants

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 11, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

NGO protests against `arbitrary cut' in grants

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, APRIL 10. Top bureaucrats of the Central and State Governments on Sunday visited various projects being run by the Tirupati-based NGO, Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS). Sarita Prasad, Secretary, Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, inaugurated the national polio eradication programme organised by the RASS at its `Seva Nilayam' here.

The team complimented the RASS and its general secretary, G. Munirathnam, for their pioneering efforts in improving the lot of the most neglected segment of society.

Mr. Munirathnam who took the team around its projects later presented a memorandum seeking its intervention vis-a-vis indiscriminate cut being imposed by the Government in the grant-in-aid being paid to NGOs. He said that as the cut being imposed was arbitrary and subjective varying from organisation to organisation, it was sending wrong signals about the bonafides of the organisation concerned and was also making experts and professionals working in them quit and go for greener pastures.

The team comprised of Jayati Chandra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Aloka Guha, Chairperson, National Trust, New Delhi and R. Sundar Vadan, Commissioner, Department for the Welfare of the Disabled, Andhra Pradesh.

The officials addressed beneficiaries and parents of disabled and spastic children, Self Help Groups formed by the disabled persons, workers of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the staff of the Institute for Diploma in Mental Retardation.

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Andhra Pradesh