The city unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to raise funds to aid the victims of the Saturday’s catastrophic earthquake that claimed more than 2,500 lives and left behind a trail of destruction of private and public property.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Monday, BJP city president Ujwala Badavanache said the party had set a target of collecting Rs.1.50 lakh cash from the public. She appealed to the public to contribute generously to help the party in providing relief to needy victims. Party workers would open a stall to receive donations from the public at Dharmveer Sambhaji Chowk (Bogarves) in the city on Tuesday.
Replying to a query, she said the people could trust the BJP as the funds collected from public would be sent to the central unit of the party, from where the funds would be sent to Nepal.
Interestingly, this is in sharp contrast with the normal practice of funds collected from the public to provide relief to the victims of natural calamities through the office of the Deputy Commissioner.
When pointed out that the BJP had collected tens of hundreds of crores for building Ram temple at Ayodhya and during the Kargil war, she said she would ensure complete transparency and release the details of the funds collected from the public, which would be deposited into party’s specially created account in a bank for Nepal victims.
Membership
Ms. Badavanache said the nation-wide membership drive launched by the party five months ago had evoked a massive response. “The party is about to achieve the 10 crore target soon. So far, 8.80 crore individuals had obtained primary membership of the party,” she said.
In Belagavi, over one lakh persons were enrolled, which included 20,000 members who volunteered to join the party.
The enrolment was highest in Belgavi South assembly constituency, accounting for 70,000 followed by 30,000 in Belagavi North. While Belagavi South is represented by an independent MLA, a Congress MLA represented Belagavi North.
‘Funds collected would be sent to the party’s central unit from where it would be taken to Nepal’
