NEW DELHI: Government is set to launch an exclusive website that would allow common people to make monetary donations to the families of the paramilitary troops killed in the line of duty. The Union Home Ministry has taken into consideration a proposal made by actor Akshay Kumar in this regard some time back where he floated an idea that bonafide details of such families should be put on a public platform so that anyone could help them financially.
A blueprint prepared in this regard, accessed by PTI, said the website, that will be hosted under the Home Ministry, will have "information on martyrs and their families along with bank details so that anybody willing to extend financial support can donate money online." The blueprint has proposed that the upper limit of making such a public donation to a family of a trooper killed in action should not be more than Rs 15 lakh and once this ceiling is reached, the contacts of the family will automatically get "deleted" from the website.
"The families of troops killed in action already are provided monetary assistance by the government and the force they belong to. This assistance from the public will be over and above the service compensation," a senior officer said. The website, expected to be launched next week, will also carry brief details about the operation in which the trooper was killed, his age and address of his native village, name of the next-of-kin as provided in service records and complete details of at least one bank account of the family. It is also being thought, they said, that some instances where a trooper is critically injured and requires financial assistance for specialised medical treatment can also be put on the website for people who want to contribute directly in this regard.
A nodal officer in one of the paramilitary or Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) of CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB and NSG will be nominated who will be responsible for updating of data on the web portal. Further down the line, an Android and I-phone based application (app) could also be developed, they said. The "Khiladi" Kumar had recently donated Rs 9 lakh each to the families of twelve CRPF personnel who were killed in a Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh's Sukma on March 11.
Few days later, Badminton player and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal had made a similar contribution and donated Rs 50,000 each to these families of CRPF men. The actor had also met Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi at his office in North Block here in January to take forward his plan. The CAPFs are not only deployed for guarding Indian borders but they also render a variety of internal security tasks including tackling the Naxal menace in Left Wing Extremism-hit states.