Prime Minister’s Covid-19 Cares Fund

June 20, 2020 0 comments ISMAANA Admin Categories Patrika Q2 2020

The current outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic is creating a great sense of personal and social insecurity around the world. India has gone through several weeks of national lockdown to combat this virus. This has created an immense amount of hardship among poor and disadvantaged people many of whom have lost their means of livelihood and in some cases their shelter. PM Narendra Modi has created PM’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-Cares) Fund primarily to deal with the emergency situation posed by the Corona Virus pandemic. PM is the head of this fund along with defense, home, and finance ministers as the members.

We at ISMAANA are helping our mother country in this time of great suffering and need. Director IIT (ISM) requested any contributions to the PM Cares fund to be routed through IIT (ISM) Dhanbad. IIT (ISM) will direct the funds to PM Cares along with contributions from other alumni groups as well as donations from faculty members and staff who have committed to contribute two days’ salary to the fund.

We sent a fund-raising appeal to our alumni in April 2020 who generously donated to this fund drive. One very generous alumni donor who wants to stay anonymous has matched our collection 2 to 1. We have sent $67,800 in a wire transfer to IIT (ISM) the week of May 4th. This comes to approx. Rs 50 lakhs at the current exchange rate. Dheeraj Kumar of IIT (ISM) mentioned their estimated collection of over Rs.50 lakhs from the college staff and India based alumni associations, which makes the total contribution from IIT (ISM) and alumni associations to over Rs.1.00 crores. This respectable amount will help many needy and suffering persons in India.