Rajnath, Akshay to launch portal for donations to CAPF kin

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and actor Akshay Kumar will launch an exclusive website later this week that would allow common people to make monetary donations to families of paramilitary troops killed in action.

The Home Ministry has worked on a proposal and prepared the online platform after Kumar had floated an idea in this regard some time back suggesting that bonafide details of such families should be put on a public platform so that anyone could help them financially.

The website will be rendered operational, a senior officer said, after it is launched by the duo at the annual CRPF 'Valour Day' event to be held here on April 9.

A blueprint prepared in this regard, accessed by PTI, had 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 be kept at Rs 15 lakh and once this ceiling is reached, the contacts of the family will automatically get "deleted" from the website.

This assistance from the public will be over and above the service compensation provided to troops killed in the line of duty, a senior officer said.

The website will also have 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 planned 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 from one of the paramilitary forces of CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB and NSG will be nominated who will be responsible for updating of data on the web portal.

Kumar had recently donated Rs 9 lakh each to the families of 12 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 Central Armed Police Forces (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.