AAP to campaign for drought relief
Taking note of the grim situation due to water shortage across the state, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has launched a massive campaign for the relief of drought-affected people.
The AAP’s volunteers have already started visiting various localities from March 17 to collect money as well as wheat, rice, dal and clothes from city and donate it to the needy in the drought-hit areas.
On March 31, thousands of volunteers came out on streets at Chembur, Mulund, Ghatkopar, Santa Cruz and Andheri to collect “dhaan and dhan” for drought relief across the state. The biggest rally was organised in this regard from Dahisar to Andheri and was led by Mumbai’s AAP convener Prafull Vora.
“We received tremendous generosity from the kindhearted people from the city. Initially, they started donating clothes and cash, and even made cheque donations. However, we have stopped taking clothes now, and have appealed for monetary donations,” said Mr Vora.
Mr Vora added that AAP has knowledge of over 12,000 villages suffering from water shortage and there is no water for weeks. “Over 70 per cent of the crops have been damaged and farmers have suffered losses worth thousands of crores. Lakhs of people have locked their houses and are migrating to the cities. The situation is only going to get worse in summer,” he said.
The party also opened an account in the name of “Jagrut Nagrik Charitable Trust Drought Relief”, where people can make donations through cheques. After two to three days, the party pans to encash the cheques and approach the people in the drought-affected districts in the state.
Team leader Pankaj Bhargav slammed the government and said, “The government has siphoned-off over `100,000 crores in
the past decade designated for irrigation projects and as a result less than 0.1 per cent additional land has been irrigated. In spite of such a grim scenario, ministers are still wasting crores of rupees on weddings.”
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