The Tamil Nadu Senior Advocates Forum (TNSAF) has donated over ₹1.74 crore to the Cancer Institute (Women’s Indian Association) at Adyar in Chennai. The money was handed over at a fund-raising event held in Chennai on Saturday, in the presence of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and V. Ramasubramanian of the Supreme Court, former Supreme Court judge Indira Banerjee and Justice S. Vaidyanathan of the Madras High Court.
TNSAF office-bearers N.L. Rajah, P.S. Raman, P. Wilson and P.H. Arvindh Pandian had spearheaded the collection drive after learning that the Cancer Institute required ₹1.37 crore for installing a solar power plant to meet the requirements of the Padma Vibhushan Dr. V. Shanta Block. The institute had decided to move towards the use of green energy as much as possible in response to climate change issues.
The designated senior advocates practising in the Madras High Court, pooled in their resources to install the solar power plant so that the money saved on electricity bills could be used to treat more cancer patients free of cost. The drive elicited a huge response and TNSAF ended up collecting much more than the target. It handed over the entire collection to the institute for the benefit of poor patients.
Cancer Institute Chairman R. Seshasayee and executive vice-chairman E. Hemanth Raj received the cheque in the presence of World Health Organisation’s former Chief Scientist Sowmya Swaminathan who is now lending a helping hand to the research division of the institute.
The money was handed over before the staging of the docu-drama Lashmikantan, directed by acclaimed theatre personality P.C. Ramakrishna of Madras Players. The play was based on one of the most sensational murder cases tried in the Madras High Court in the 1940s, when it had original sessions jurisdiction. The case was about the murder of journalist C.N. Lakshmikantan in 1944 and the prime suspects in the crime were actors M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and N.S. Krishnan.
