Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 25: Deccan Herald, a leading English daily with head office in Bengaluru, donated here today a relief cheque of Rs.2,00,33,910 through Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, as contribution towards Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
Political Editor and Bureau Chief of Deccan Herald, Shekhar Iyer, who personally handed over the cheque to Dr Jitendra Singh, said that the amount had been contributed by the readers of Deccan Herald as well as its staffers and employees. He also said that he had been specially deputed for the task by Editor-in-Chief and Proprietor of Deccan Herald, Tilak Kumar, who too had flown in from Bengaluru for the purpose but had to return back due to certain pressing preoccupations.
Acknowledging the gesture, Dr Jitendra Singh said, even though relief donations are dropping in from all parts of the country and abroad, as also from diverse sources ranging from political parties and social groups to renowned philanthropists like Bill Gates, contribution received from Deccan Herald assumes a different kind of significance because it has been collected by media persons who are actually the opinion makers in a democratic society.
Appreciating the role of media at times of different calamities faced during the last one year of the Modi Government, Dr Jitendra Singh said, whether it was floods in Jammu & Kashmir or the Hudhud cyclone or the earthquake in Nepal, Indian media’s reporting was always prompt and positive. At all such occasions, media went beyond its brief and also performed the role of social activism by informing about the whereabouts of missing people and at the same time prompting a mass movement among people to come forward and help the Government in whichever form possible, he added.
Thanking the Union Minister, Shekhar Iyer, Political Editor & Chief of Bureau of Deccan Herald said, the Deccan Herald establishment is always in the forefront for offering assistance for social causes and therefore, its proprietors and the editorial heads were keen that the relief amount should be deposited directly in the Prime Minister’s office (PMO).
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