Bangalore: CDC Tootheless, Need Christian Devt Board at the Earliest - IFKCA to CM
Media Release
Bangalore, Jun 8: A delegation led by Ronald Colaco, chairman of International Federation on Karnataka Christian Associations (IFKCA), met chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda and presented a memorandum urging him to set up a Christian development board (CDB) on the lines of minority board at the earliest.
Members of Christian Development Council (CDC) Antony Mendonca (KAS), Gladys Almeida from Udupi, Jerardin D’Souza from Mangalore, Yesudas from Shimoga, Edwin and Joachim Serrao of IFKCA were part of the delegation.
The delegation put forward the following points in the memorandum:
- To set up Christian development board (CDB) instead of CDC with proper office and authority so as to be more meaningful and purposeful to the true intentions of helping the Christian minority.
- Other than chief minister, CDC is a toothless body with other members having no authority or responsibility.
- CM being the chairman of this Council, only one meeting has been called during the last 15 months.
- There is no separately allocated office, secretary, typist etc for CDC members and as such there is no base for CDC members to sit and function, whenever they come to the capital.
- CDC members have to come to the capital for meetings from various districts of the state. As such, no travel and sustenance allowance has been fixed to meet their travel, food and accommodation expenses.
- Request for gGovernment assistance under present CDC or proposed CDB involving CDC welfare schemes or those under minority development board (MDB) should have been considered, recommended and approved by CDC/CDB members to ensure “fair and just” allocation of funds meant for various welfare schemes for all regions and denominations of this minority in accordance with their population.
- At present, government assistance under above schemes, has not been done population, region and denomination wise to be fair to all.
- CDC members should have had meetings at least once every month or every two months in the capital to consider the needs of various sections of this minority.
During the meeting, Ronald Colaco reminded the CM of his promise of increasing the budget allocation for Christian Welfare Schemes from Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore. To this, CM replied that he has already taken steps to enhance some of the budget allocation in a few categories such as Samudaya Bhavan, church repairs etc, by showing the draft in his possession.
Replying to the other points in this letter, CM responded that he would hold a meeting of all CDC members on June 13 to discuss all the above matters. He also stated that he would take action on most of the issues raised in the memorandum.