Beware of bogus relief collectors

Hyderabad
Oct. 8: Preying on people’s generosity to make a profit, several bogus humanitarian organisations and individuals have started collecting donations for the flood victims in the state.
However, such donation hardly ever reach the genuine victims and are mostly used up by the fly-by-night organisations and dubious collectors themselves.
The state government has now put the police, even in the districts, on an alert to identify such bogus relief collectors and take stringent action against them.
Officials have revealed, at least 3,000 organisations and individuals, many of them bogus and without accountability, have been collecting funds in the state.
The information minister, Dr J. Geetha Reddy, on Thursday requested people not to donate medicines. She said the government alone will ensure the supply of medicines to the flood-affected areas. She also asked people to refrain from donating used clothes and cooked food.
The Hyderabad district collector, Mr Navin Mittal, who is coordinating with the districts administrations of Mahbubnagar, Kurnool and Krishna, said donors should send in their donations — cash or kind — only to authorised Non Governmental Organisations or newspaper organisations besides well-known individuals. Mr Mittal asked people to hand over cheques or demand drafts (DDs) at the special counter in the Secretariat or at the district collector’s office. He said donation in kind, especially cooking utensils, will also be of great help.
Meanwhile, the state government has set up special centres in various cities and towns to receive aid material. Dr Geetha Reddy said the material could be handed over at the Exhibition Grounds, Nampally, in Hyderabad; Sports Stadium at Kurnool; Lalitha Kala Pranganam at Tirupati; the Corporation office at Vijayawada; the collector’s office in Guntur and at the church in Repalle.
Dr Geetha Reddy also announced that the assistant sub-inspector, Mr T. Satyanarayana, and the constable, Mr Rama Rao, were suspended following allegations that the two had sold relief material in Veeravalli in Mahbubnagar district.
from DC