Sachin Tendulkar leads Parliament by example with New Year gift to impoverished school
Sachin Tendulkar’s lack of involvement in Parliamentary affairs despite being a Rajya Sabha member for the last three years has drawn some criticism, but his recent form has proved why the majority of Indians refer to him as a God.
A special needs school for deaf and mute children in Ahmednagar’s Sangamner taluka received a New Year’s gift from an anonymous source, one that has given the school a new lease of life. The school has been in need of money for some time for purposes like erecting new buildings and scholarships for students, but funds were not forthcoming despite many requests and meetings with government officials.
Sachin came to know of the school during an informal meeting with a doctor who hails from the village where the school is located, named Devendra Vohra. He came to know of the plight of the school which has existed for the past 30 years, and decided to do something about it.
The school woke up in 2016 to see that Rs. 50 lakh had been donated to their coffers, realizing only two days later that the anonymous benefactor had been none other than India’s best loved cricket hero.
Though the monetary help was sent by Sachin through his aides, and though the school did not manage to meet with Sachin to thank him, they have expressed eternal gratefuleness and a belief that only a kind and soft-hearted man like Sachin could have done this.
In a time where members of Parliament are accused of not utilizing the funds allotted to them for the development of their areas, Sachin’s use of funds are an example that the rest of the country’s politicans can strive to follow.
One of the best performing MPs
In fact, recent findings show that Sachin is one of the best performing nominated lawmakers when it comes to utilising funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).
He has exhausted 98 per cent of his MPLADS funds, making allocations for flood relief in Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu and rebuilding a school and bridge in Chamoli in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand floods.
Not only that, Tendulkar posed as many as seven questions in the Rajya Sabha in a fortnight during the winter session.
He has also been known to invest substantial amounts to build toilets in Mumbai’s Goregaon and school infrastructure in remote parts of Maharashtra and West Bengal. His crowning glory as a Parliament member, however, is the village of Puttamraju Kandriga in Andhra Pradesh, a village he had adopted and transformed in terms of roads, water, electricity and sanitation.
Sachin had to know about Puttamraju Kandriga from a former district collector on a flight. As a result of a similar chance meeting with a doctor, a needy school with a genuine need has received timely help from the legend of all seasons.