Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu on March 9 announced a donation of Rs 50 lakh from his personal account for Deepak Nabam Living Home in Itanagar.
Situated at Senki View in Itanagar, Deepak Nabam Living Home is a shelter home for mentally disturbed, orphans, destitute, old-age people and addicts run by Deepak Nabam and his wife Protima Nabam exclusively by themselves without any assistance from the government or any organization.
“It was in January this year, my second son’s birthday. I asked one of my personal staff to look out for a destitute home or an orphanage in the state capital doing commendable job and offer some amount for a grand meal to the inmates. He selected Deepak Nabam Living Home,” Khandu said.
The Arunachal Pradesh chief minister went on to disclose that his personal staff brought back a few video clips from the shelter home and shared with him. “What I saw shook my conscience. I never knew someone was doing such great service to humanity. I saw that there were many inmates but the living condition and the infrastructure was very poor. Literally, it broke my heart,” Khandu said.
The CM then enquired and was shocked to know that the shelter home received no funds or assistance from any central or state government schemes. It was being run solely by Deepak Nabam from his own resources with some assistance from a few well-wishers.
“I then decided to visit the home. Our government is committed to welfare of destitute, orphans, old-age people and addicts equally just like other citizens,” Pema Khandu revealed.
Going around the shelter home and interacting with the inmates, CM Khandu lauded Deepak Nabam, his wife and the volunteers for their yeoman services. He though felt the urgency to improve the home’s infrastructure with proper facilities.
Khandu assured to fulfil the requirements of the shelter home like a common kitchen, male ward, flood protection, security fencing, drainage, etc and expressed confidence that these assets would be put to good use by Deepak Nabam.
He said that many such NGOs are doing great service to humanity across the state, which need handholding by the government. He said in the ensuing e-Pragati meeting, he would direct all deputy commissioners to submit the list of such NGOs so that government can decide a mechanism to help them through the department of social justice, empowerment & tribal affairs (SJETA).
He informed that the state government would offer grant-in-aid to such NGOs instead of the in-practice corpus fund. He claimed low interest rates of corpus funds offered by banks hardly benefit the concerned NGO.
“Deepak Nabam is doing a great job but he alone cannot sustain. He has done to the limit of his personal resources. Now the government has to step in and all well-to-do citizens need to chip in. We throw huge amounts of money in politics, can’t we contribute a little to such NGOs?” Khandu added.
