Whenever there is any calamity of any sorts, people do want to donate to the maximum extent possible, to the various relief agencies and especially to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund and thereby express their solidarity with their fellow Indians.
But many people shy away from doing so as they are worried that their donations would be siphoned off by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and middlemen and not reach the intended beneficiaries.
In the aftermath of the ‘Hudhud cyclone’ all sections of society responded to Chandrababu Naidu’s plea for assistance and donated generously to the ‘Chief Minister’s Relief Fund’.
Film stars outdid one another in announcing their contributions. However, to date, the government itself has not declared the total amount of funds raised for Hudhud and it required an RTI petition filed by a resident of Vizag to extract the information.
Responding to the RTI petition filed by K Dali Naidu, the government declared that Rs 129.79 crore has been received by way of donations. But it has refused to reveal the identities of the donors, a decision that has baffled many.
To the question “How much amount (was) received from private companies, central public sector undertakings, state government, public undertakings and societies after the incident occurred”, the government said, “Providing information in respect of details of donors is under examination.”
What is the need to hide the identity of the nearly 6000 donors? Revealing their names will provide them with a sense of satisfaction and society will thank them for it. It will also help to weed out the pseudo-donors.
“There is no confidential disclosure involved in this. Now a days, a lot of people write cheques in front of the media and after that throw it in the dustbin. Who is keeping track of that? I wanted to know who are the people really concerned about our city,” said Dali Naidu.
He further added, “If you take the instance of the Odisha government, they set up a website listing the name of each donor along with the donation amount immediately after Cyclone Phailin. This is very transparent and gives a clear picture to the public about the donors. Even they (donors) feel happy that their contribution has been recognized. The State government should also say how it intends to use this money. Since it is for the city, we should see to it that the fund is not misused or diverted for vested interests.”
