Forty years after retirement, IAF man donates over Rs 1 cr to defence ministry

Agencies
July 16, 2019

New Delhi, Jul 16: It is rightly said that you can take the soldier out of Army but you cannot take the Army out of the soldier. Meet 74-year-old CBR Prasad, a retired airman who has donated almost entire savings of his life to the Ministry of Defence.

"After 9 years I left the Indian Air Force (IAF) because the Indian Railways offered me a good job. Unfortunately, I did not get that job. I started a small poultry farm for my livelihood. Fortunately, I did well," he told news agency.

"After fulfilling my family responsibilities, I thought I should give back to the defence whatever I got from there. I decided to give Rs 1.08 crore to the defence forces," added Prasad.

He met defence minister Rajnath Singh here on Monday and handed over the cheque to him.

Prasad started poultry farming and worked hard for 30 years. With the aim of helping society, he has also set up a sports university.

Prasad served in the IAF for around nine years before he left it.

Asked if his family approved the idea, the retired air-warrior says, "Absolutely, no problem. I have given my daughter 2 per cent of my property and one per cent to my wife. Rest 97 per cent, I am giving back to the society."

Despite donating his entire life saving, he tries to underplay it.

"Rajnath Singh was happy to see that such a small sepoy was giving his entire savings back to the defence," he says.

So, how did he get the idea to donate his savings to the Defence Ministry? It is a big story, he says.

"When I was 20 years, and I was working in the Air Force, my officers called one gentleman GD Naidu from Coimbatore as a Chief Guest. He said that India was a great country because our sages thought that we should give back to our society, once our family responsibility is over," he said.

"You should not take back anything because you did not get anything while coming. Give that minimum needed to your family and the rest to the society and rest of the life work for the society," he added.

Recalling his days of struggle, he says: "I left home with Rs 5 in my pocket and earned 500-acre land with my bare hard work. I have given 5-acre to my wife and 10-acre to my daughter and rest everything, I am utilising for the society," adds the retired IAF man.

Prasad says that once he dreamt of winning an Olympic medal but could not do so. So now, he was training kids.

"I established one sports university like campus in about 50 acres of land. In another 50 acres of land, I am building another sports university. My ambition is to build two sports universities -- one for boys and one for girls. As a child, I had the ambition to win Olympic medal but I could not. So, for the last 20 years, I have been training children," he adds.

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News Network
April 26,2020

New Delhi, Apr 26: Medical services at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Jahangirpuri area have been closed and the hospital is being sanitised after 44 staff members including doctors were tested positive for COVID-19, Delhi Health Department said on Saturday.

"Total 44 staff members including doctors at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Jahangirpuri area of Delhi have tested positive for COVID-19. Test reports of other staff members are awaited. Hospital's medical services have been closed and the hospital is being sanitized," Delhi Health Department said.

Earlier today, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain informed that there are 2,625 coronavirus cases in Delhi, out of which 111 were reported yesterday.

The total number of active cases in the national capital stands at 1,518 while 869 people have recovered so far, the minister further informed. There have been 54 deaths in the national capital, as per the Union Health Ministry.

A total of 26,496 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in India, including 19,868 active cases, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Sunday.

824 people have lost their lives due to the infection in the country.

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News Network
June 24,2020

Islamabad, Jun 24: A plane crash which killed 97 people in Pakistan last month was because of human error by the pilot and air traffic control, according to an initial report into the disaster released Wednesday.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane came down among houses on May 22 after both engines failed as it approached Karachi airport, killing all but two people on board.

"The pilot as well as the controller didn't follow the standard rules," the country's aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said, announcing the findings in parliament.

He said the pilots had been discussing the coronavirus pandemic as they attempted to land the Airbus A320.

"The pilot and co-pilot were not focused and throughout the conversation was about coronavirus," Khan said.

The Pakistani investigation team, which included officials from the French government and the aviation industry, analysed data and voice recorders.

The minister said the plane was "100 percent fit for flying, there was no technical fault".

The county's deadliest aviation accident in eight years came days after domestic commercial flights resumed following a two-month coronavirus lockdown.

Many passengers were on their way to spend the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr with loved ones.

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Agencies
February 9,2020

Panaji, Feb 10: Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Rev Filipe Neri Ferrao, has urged the central government to "immediately and unconditionally revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act" and stop quashing the "right to dissent".

He also appealed to the government not to implement the proposed countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media, a wing of the Goa Church, in a statement on Saturday said, "The Archbishop and the Catholic community of Goa would like to appeal to the government to listen to the voice of millions in India, to stop quashing the right to dissent and, above all, to immediately and unconditionally revoke the CAA and desist from implementing the NRC and the NPR."

The CAA, NRC and NPR are "divisive and discriminatory" and will certainly have a "negative and damaging effect" on a multi-cultural democracy like ours, the church said.

There is serious concern that NRC and NPR will result in "direct victimisation of the underprivileged classes, particularly Dalits, adivasis, migrant labourers, nomadic communities and the countless undocumented people who, after having been recognised as worthy citizens and voters for more than 70 years, will suddenly run the risk of becoming stateless and candidates for detention camps," it said.

There has been widespread discontent and open protests throughout the country and even abroad against the CAA, NRC and NPR, which are "forecasting a systematic erosion of values, principles and rights" that have been guaranteed to all citizens in the Constitution, the release said.

Eminent citizens, including top intellectuals and legal luminaries, have taken a studied and unequivocal stand against the CAA, NRC and NPR, it noted.

Goa also witnessed several protests, which transcended the confines of religious and caste affiliation and brought people from all walks of life together on one united platform, said the statement.

It said Christians in India have always been a peace loving community and deeply committed to the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity, enshrined in the
Constitution.

"We have always taken great pride that our beloved country is a secular, sovereign, socialist, pluralistic anddemocratic republic," the church said.

The very fact that CAA uses religion goes against the secular fabric of the country, it said.

"It goes against the spirit and heritage of our land which, since times immemorial, has been a welcoming home to all, founded on the belief that the whole world is one big family," the church said.

"We pray for our beloved country, that good sense, justice and peace prevail in the hearts and minds of all," it added.

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