Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Governor lays stone for short stay home at Cancer Centre

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Dec. 30. The Governor, C. Rangarajan, laid the foundation stone for a 360-bed short stay shelter home at the MNJ Institute of oncology and Regional Cancer Centre here on Monday. This short stay shelter is being constructed jointly by the Indian Red Cross Society and Bani Sharanam Foundation for the benefit of poor patients' relatives who do not have a place to stay during the course of the treatment.

Dr. Rangarajan congratulated Tejdeep Kaur Menon, IG Police, who took the initiative for this philanthropic work and called on people to generously contribute for building and running the institution. He said that there were over 2.5 million cancer patients in the country and many of them were extremely poor. They and their relatives could not afford to live in hotels during the course of the treatment and literally lived on the streets. This proposed home would give them a comfortable place to stay during the course of treatment.

Speaking about her motivation to build such a short stay home, Ms. Menon said that she was moved by the plight of poor patients and their relatives from as far as Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka living on the streets while they were undergoing cancer treatment. Therefore, she decided to raise resources and build a short stay home in the memory of her daughter, Bani, who had also suffered from cancer.

At present Rs. 50 lakhs of the total cost of Rs. 250 lakhs have been raised from donations. The Union Minister of State for Railways, Bandaru Dattatreya, and the TDP MP, C. Ramachandraiah, have both donated Rs. 10 lakhs each for this project. The donations are exempt from income tax.

Haripriya Rangarajan, Chairperson, Red Cross, Andhra Pradesh, Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister of State for Railways, and B.N. Rao, Director, MNJ Institute, were among those who spoke on the occasion.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Left parties to hold convention against globalisation
• Governor lays stone for short stay home at Cancer Centre
• Two arrested, revolver seized
• Auto strike deferred

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu