3 August 2000

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: If you had contributed money to so many organisations and newspapers that came forward to raise funds for relief and welfare of families of the Indian Army personnel killed in the Kargil operations, it may not have reached the intended beneficiaries and the Government just cannot do anything in such frauds.

"It is not possible to compel the State Governments or the other private and public organisations to deposit the funds collected by them in the National Defence Fund or the Army Central Welfare Fund (ACWF)," Defence Minister George Fernandes disclosed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday in reply to a question by Maharashtra Congress member Naresh Puglia.

Among those committing the fraud of collecting money in the name of "Kargil fund" but not passing on to the Defence Ministry or the victims' families directly are two state governments, one run by the Bhartiya Janata Party and another run by the Congress.

Admitting that the Centre does not have information about the funds collected by various state governments except two -- the Gujarat Government and the Madhya Pradesh Government, Fernandes has washed off his hands by just providing details of how the two governments intend to use the money collected in the name of Kargil.

The Madhya Pradesh Government had collected Rs 12.85 crores in the "Kargil Mukhya Mantri Kosh" while it has disbursed only 1.10 crores out of this amount to the families of eleven soldiers and officers. "The State Government has also decided to pay an ex-gratia amount of Rs 10 lakhs to the disabled soldiers with 100 per cent disability and proportionately reduce ex-gratia amount for lesser disability," Fernandes said.

In case of the Gujarat Government, it has an excuse that the money was not collected by setting up any "Kargil Fund" as done by the Madhya Pradesh Government. In reply to Puglia and Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, Fernandes said the appeal was issued by the Chief Minister (Keshubhai Patel) during the Kargil conflict for contribution to Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

The Gujarat Government thus collected Rs 22.73 crores in the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, out of which it contributed Rs 5 crores direct to the ACWF and another Rs 1.33 crores were spent for providing death relief and welfare facilities to the families of Army personnel belonging to the state of Gujarat, Fernandes said. He said the State Government has also prepared a comprehensive package for Army personnel belonging to Gujarat.

An amount of Rs 508.62 crores was received in the National Defence Fund and another Rs 291 crores in the Army Central Welfare Fund but this may not be the total contribution that the people made as a gratitude towards the Kargil heroes since the Defence Minister himself admits that the government is helpless if somebody had raised money in the name of Kargil and quietly pocketed. END