Indian
Express: Ahmedabad: Wednesday, October 24, 2012.
An RTI
application filed by a Mumbai-based NGO has revealed that Chief Minister
Narendra Modi gave away Rs 5.27 crore from CM Relief Fund to Seva Bharthi, a
Tamil Nadu-based NGO run by RSS, for post-tsunami rehabilitation works.
Kutch-based
businessman Ramesh Joshi, who runs NGO Kutch Ladayak Manch in Mumbai, had
sought the expenditure details of CM Relief Fund for the last 12 years.
According to
Joshi, Modi also gave Rs 10 lakh to Nagpur police commissioner from CM Relief
Fund for foiling a terror attack at RSS headquarters in 2009.
The land line
number posted on Seva Bharthi’s website was found to be belonging to RSS
office.
The
organisation’s website claims, “Seva Bharthi is a socio-cultural organisation
carrying out service activities based on the ideals propounded by great men
like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr K B Hedgewar and Sri
M S Golwalkar... Since its inception in 1989, it has progressively expanded its
activities to cover all the 28 states and 7 union territories of India.”
The RTI
replies also reveal that on December 26, 2004, Modi sent Rs 5 crore to Tamil
Nadu, Rs 2 crore to Andaman Nicobar, Rs 1 crore to Andhra Pradesh and Rs 1
crore each to Orissa and Pondicherry governments after these states were hit by
tsunami. However, the Orisaa government returned the money for the reasons
unknown.
“The saddest
part of Mr Modi is the fact that on December 23, 2004, three days before he
sent Rs 10 crore to five states, five poor families of Bharuch district had
suffered a crisis due to a fire incident. One of the victims, Maniben
Prabhubhai Machhi, received only Rs 2,000 from the CM’s fund which is supposed
to give relief to people belonging to the state,” Joshi said in a press
release.
State
government’s spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas and Finance Minister Saurabh Patel,
in a joint statement, said, “This is an attempt to defame the CM out of malice
by the NGO Kutch Ladyak Manch. The assistance of Rs 5.27 crore was given for
the rehabilitation of people affected in tsunami which was certified by the
district revenue department officer, Nagapattinam.”
“Gujarat had
taken an initiative at that time for this relief work in the country... The
Tamil Nadu government had recommended Seva Bharthi to help in this project.
Everything related to the fund and related works has been documented and
photographed,” they said.
Additional
chief secretary Varun Maira, who is holding chief secretary’s charge at
present, said he had no information in this regard. He, however, added: “It is
not an arbitrary thing as there are set procedures to release money from CM
Relief Fund and it goes through various checks.”
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