After the outbreak of Covid-19 in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed the country to contribute generously for effected poorly fellow citizens.
Within four days of the appeal, on March 31st, 2020, Prime Minister Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM Cares) funds had a corpus of Rs. 3,076.62 Crore. A major amount of this donation (Rs. 3,075.85) was a voluntary act.
Guess which single higher education institution contributed most to #PMCares to fight #Covid_19? #AligarhMuslimUniversity, as per #IndianExpress. It did so from staff salary.
At Rs 1.3-crore, it contributed more than all #NITs combined and more than 10 times of #IIM Ahmedabad.— Vikas Pathak (@vikaspathak76) September 22, 2020
The major benefactors had the names of public sector companies, Navodya schools for rural students, IITs, IIMs, and Central Universities.
Aligarh Muslim University came out to donate one day salary of its employees to the unprecedented crisis of the country.
Omar Peerzada, PRO Aligarh Muslim University, briefed that after the consultative meeting of Teachers Association Representatives, Members of Executive Council, and Non-Teaching Staff under the Chairmanship of the Vice-chancellor, Prof. Tariq Mansoor decided for the same.
He added; “We hope that the nation soon overcomes the crisis, and there will be a new dawn of full activity, progress, and development.”
According to the Indian Express report on August 19, 2020, 11 Central Universities contributed to which Aligarh Muslim University became the biggest donor with Rs. 1.33 crore. Banaras Hindu University. (Rs, 1.14 Crores), Delhi based Central Sanskrit university (Rs. 27.38 lakhs) were among the others. And as many as 38 PSUs used their CSR to contribute Rs. 2,105 Crores.
AMU has been into headlines from time to time for being Anti-national, sometimes even called as Mini-Pakistan by the Righ Wingers. But this generous act and care for the fellow citizens and the nation as a whole is a big answer to such allegations.
The Prime Minister’s office, however, has declined to furnish the contribution under PM Care funds asserting that it is not a public authority, under the ambit of the RTI Act.