MPs, MLAs Seek Renewal of RDT; Meet Amit Shah
Leaders warn closure of 55-year-old NGO would hit healthcare, jobs, and rural services
Anantapur: A representation has been made to the Centre to continue the functioning of the Rural Development Trust, an NGO that has a history of 55 years’ service to the Rayalaseema region.
Since it is currently under the verge of closure due to its failure to get FCRA renewal, the MPs and MLAs from Anantapur and Satya Sai districts met Union home minister Amith Shah and made a plea to this effect.
Also present in the delegation was civil aviation minister K Ramamohan Naidu. They told the home minister that the organization had undertaken huge developmental activities with thousands of crores in the past 55 years.
Anantapur MP Ambika Lakshmi Narayana observed that thousands of poor people benefitted from the selfless services of the Rural Development Trust. Thousands of employees of the organisation will lose their jobs and hospitals with top-quality services would be shut down due to non-revival of FCRA.
This would lead to a loss of more than `300 crore in annual budget for the services in the region, the minister was told.
Further, the RDT’s ongoing emergency medical services reach eight lakh outpatients every year apart from encouragement of youths through a separate Ananta Rural Sports Village. There exists a fear that all such activities would stop soon, the delegates stated.
RDT founder is Vincent Ferror from Spain, who has migrated to Anantapur and in 1969 established the entity as a non-profit organization, which is non-religious, non-political and nationalistic. With a staff of 3000, 51 per cent of which are women, the organisation operates in over 3500 villages across AP and Telangana, covering over 450,000 economically weaker families in rural areas. The trust works for the social and economic uplift of rural men and women.
