E-Paper
Sohna village donates ₹21 crore to state’s Covid-19 relief fund
Gurugram:
Gurugram:
Palra village in Sohna, located almost 12 kilometres south of the Gurugram city, has donated ₹21 crore to the Haryana Covid Relief Fund. For the contribution, the village gram panchayat liquidated a portion of the amount which it received after selling a village land to government agency in 2017.
This is the highest donation made by any village panchayat in the state, said Ravinder Kumar, a gram panchayat member.
Palra village sarpanch Munesh Devi presented a cheque for the amount to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar at his residence in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
“The idea was floated in a gram panchayat meeting in the first week of April. A part of the village land, which falls under the Sohna block, was acquired by Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) in July 2017. The gram panchayat at that time received an amount of almost Rs 40 crore which was deposited in different banks as fixed Deposit (FD),” Kumar said , a gram panchayat member, said, who was present at the CM’s residence in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
“Twelve of our gram panchayat members were present in Chandigarh to give the cheque to the CM, who hailed us for our contribution,” said Kumar.
According to him, they have been utilizing the interest generated from the amount for the development work of the village. “We realised that the panchayat has no dearth of funds to invest in development work. Releasing a certain amount for relief fund would not hamper our functioning,” said Kumar.
On April 11, the gram panchayat had submitted the proposal to the Gurugram district administration to liquidate FDs with different banks.
“From the deputy commissioner’s office, the proposal was shared with the Haryana cabinet for approval. An approval is needed from the state government to withdraw money using those FDs. On April 21, the gram panchayat was permitted to do so and donate the amount,” said Kumar.
Khattar appreciated the initiative by the Palra villagers and said that the government has been receiving good response from panchayats and social organisations, said a statement released by the district administration.
The Palra gram panchayat member further said that the villagers wanted to give their contribution especially at a time when the state government is spending money on migrant workers to mitigate their hardships. “At a time when industrialists and different organizations are coming forward to help the state, we thought of doing it too,” said Kumar.
Like Palra, a village from Panipat – Bal Jattan– also donated ₹10.5 crore to the state relief fund.
