For the overseas Indians looking to give back to their mother land, more so to ones native village or town, things have become just convenient and credible, thanks to one of the initiatives launched by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Several NRIs are keen to help out to provide a permanent community asset in their native villages, town or district rather than providing donations randomly.
Making this possible, the MEA created a Trust- India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI)- to channel the contributions of overseas Indians.
It takes the responsibility by partnering with the States to ensure the contributions of NRIs are well spent under the flagship programmes of Centre and States in sanitation, education, health, women and child development, livelihoods.
Donations
The Trust would accept donations in the range of ₹5 lakh to ₹30 lakh to fund the projects that could be completed within three to six months and routes them to the States of donors’ choice.
“ The success of the Trust depends on how well State governments and district administrations collaborate with us. Because overseas Indians want quick results in a span of three to six months,” said Vani Rao, Joint Secretary, MEA who was here last week as part of first outreach programme of MEA in Telangana. Telangana Government, for its part, took a step forward and entered into an MoU with the IDF-OI to act as facilitator through a designated office to ground projects that came to the State and monitor them.
In the limelight
Suryapet Collector Surendra Mohan was in the limelight at the MEA’s outreach programme for grounding the first ever IDF-OI project in the quickest possible time in Telangana.
When US-based NRI G.Satyanarayana contacted the IDF to contribute ₹20 lakh for his native village Yendlapally in January this year, the Collector was brought on board.
He took the proposal forward, a Grama Sabha was organised to let people decide what they needed utmost. When they decided on a primary health sub-centre, a retired postman K. Lingaiah of the village came forward to donate 560 sq.yards for the PHC.
Mr. Surendra Mohan sharing his experience with the IDF said the project was grounded on March 13 and it would be ready in October. The existing PHC functioning in a single room would then move into spacious premises to cater to a population of 4,300 and provide maternal and child care services with all amenities.
This should increase government institutional deliveries, reduce financial burden on poor towards medical services. He also lined up community asset proposals worth ₹85 lakh for IDF approval and funding.
Citing his own NRI experience and understanding of their strong emotional connect , IT and NRI Affairs Minister K.T.Rama Rao made a strong pitch that MEA could broaden the initiative to include bigger projects for employment generation. “ We have 20 US based IT professionals keen to set up an IT tower in their native Khammam district. It’s time the MEA considered collaborating on such projects too with the State,” he said opening one more possibility for greater NRI involvement in a streamlined fashion.
