VILLUPURAM: Days after 8-year-old Anupriya from the district had donated her piggy-bank savings to the Kerala flood relief fund, Hero Cycles Limited on Monday evening honoured the girl with a brand new bicycle. When Hero Cycles offered the money that Anupriya had contributed to the fund, she and parents refused to accept it. Instead, they requested the company to provide it to the flood victims. Recently, the class 2 girl donated `8,846, which she had saved in four of her piggy banks for buying a bicycle, to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. Rounding off the money to `10,000, her father Siva Shanmuganathan sent it to the neighbouring State through a demand draft.
Soon, the news about the girl’s big-hearted contribution spread virally in social media. Seeing a tweet, the Hero Cycles offered her a bicycle and the company’s chairman Pankaj M Munjal said they would present her a new bicycle every year.
On Monday evening, Anupriya and her parents went to a retail unit of Hero Cycles here and the company’s south India sales officer Manojkumar honoured the girl with a brand new bicycle, which she had chosen. He also offered Anupriya the money, she had donated to the fund and asked her to deposit it in her piggy banks. However, the girl and her parents refused to take it.
“Anupriya did not take the money offered by Hero cycles and asked them to send it to flood relief fund. We also informed them not to gift her bicycle every year. Instead, we asked them to use that amount for the benefit needy,” Shanmuganathan told Express. After receiving the bicycle, Anupriya said that she was very happy. The girl added that she had planned to buy a bicycle on her birthday on October 16, but she got it now. On Tuesday, superintendent of police S Jeyakumar called Anupriya to his office and honoured her with shawl and gift. Her school management also praised the girl for her noble act.