Dear All,

Please take this appeal seriously and contribute something as fast 
as you can. The drought situation is pretty grim in some parts of 
AP and people are in real danger of dying. Also please do forward 
this mail to as many people as you can and request them to help. 
We are working on getting some way of receiving foreing cash too 
and hopefull things will work out with both ActionAid India as 
well as Sundarayya Vignan Kendra. Will let you know as it come 
through. waiting for your help.

Aniket - Manjari.

This is an appeal asking for financial help to set up a gruel 
centre in Mahaboobnagar district of Andhra Pradesh to help 
drought
affected people who are starving and are in very real danger of 
dying.

Andhra Pradesh, specially the Telangana region, has had deficient 
rainfall for the past three monsoons which the Government has 
officially termed as "drought". The past year, June to Sept. 2002, 
was specially bad with most farmers losing even their
unirrigated crops. Food stocks are low with the landless 
labourers, small and marginal farmers and credible reports from 
many places indicate that we are sitting on a starvation death 
"time bomb". That is unless basic food is provided on an emergency 
footing.

Unfortunately, the Government has refused to accept that people 
are starving for lack of access to food since they feel that any
mention of starvation is an "opposition inspired" attempt to 
defame them. Equally unfortunate is the reluctance of almost all
political parties and civil society groups to do anything concrete 
about this issue, eg. provide food to people starving. It is 
only
the CPI and the CPI(M) which have started some gruel centres in a 
few score "worst affected" villages. That is just not enough.

We are a group of independent minded individuals in Hyderabad who 
have come together in the name of a "Citizens' Collective" and we 
propose to start some gruel centres to help people survive the 
drought. These gruel centres would provide basic food once a day 
in a village. This food consists of rice and some coarse cereals 
which is just enough to ward of death for one more day. The 
average cost of running such a gruel centre in one village is 
about Rs. 10,000 per month (or about $ 220 at present exchange 
rates). We propose to start with one gruel centre in one village 
in Mahaboobnagar district and run it till the end of June when 
agricultural operations begin with the rain. That implies a cost 
of Rs. 25,000 (or $ 560).

We feel that it is necessary for ordinary people to come forward 
to contribute to starting and running these gruel centres when the 
Government has abdicated its responsibility. We therefore, appeal 
to you to contribute as much as you can to help us set up and run 
such a gruel centre. If there is more than Rs. 25,000 collected in 
the next few days, we will set up more gruel centres. We have been 
promised organisational help by those who are already running 
these gruel centres in setting up and running them, as we do not 
have practical experience of doing this work in the villages. We 
would however be involved in financing, organising and running the 
centres we set up.

Please rush the money either through Postal Order or Demand Draft 
payable at Hyderabad to Manjari Katju, and post/ courier it to 
401, Maphar Castle, Ayodhya Nagar Colony, Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad 
500 028.

Contact phone numbers are (Manjari 040-2351-7167) (Aniket 
0-94400-52211) (Uma 040-2751-0297) (Rayalu 040-56553467).

NOTE FOR THOSE RESIDENT OUTSIDE INDIA: (Contributions in 
currencies other than Indian Rupees are welcome but as of now we 
are not in a position to receive them as we are not a NGO or even 
a registered organisation. Therefore we cannot also give receipts 
for the donations. But we are talking to Action Aid India and the 
Hyderabad based Sundarayya Vignan Kendra to receive foreign 
currency contributions for us. As and when this arrangement comes 
through we will inform you. If you can send us money in Indian 
rupees please do so! Every penny counts!!)

Those who are resident in Hyderabad can join us in visiting the 
gruel centre and work there. That is the only receipt for your
money which we can give!!

Please act on this appeal and send your contributions quickly, we 
can start the gruel centre only when we have enough to sustain for 
at least a month. Please also forward this to as many people as 
possible and ask them to help.

For Citizens' Collective,
Uma Maheshwari,
Rama Rayalu,
Manjari Katju,
Jose Martin,
Aniket Alam,

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