Abu Dhabi, Sep 12 : Fifty members of the Kerala Social Centre (KSC), an organisation of expatriates in the UAE, have pledged to donate their one month's salary to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF) to help people in the flood-ravaged state.

The initiative was in response to an help appeal made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to all Keralites on a Facebook post last month, KSC General Secretary Bijith Kumar told Gulf News on Tuesday.

The KSC's managing committee meeting decided that all its 16 members will contribute their one month's salary, he said.

Thirty-six other members also made a similar commitment, Kumar said. They included professionals and mid-and-low level employees working in various sectors in the UAE capital.

The KSC and its affiliate organisation, Shakthi Theatres, have already contributed Rs 2 million to the Chief Minister's Fund, said A.K. Beeran Kutty, President of the KSC.

Kutty and his colleagues directly handed over the cheques to senior Kerala ministers last week at Thiruvananthapuram, the report said. He said the centre had also sent 6 tonnes of relief goods for the flood victims.

The 46-year-old KSC is a prominent sociocultural forum in Abu Dhabi.

One of the five Indian community organisations in the capital registered with the UAE Ministry of Community Development, the KSC caters to around 4,500 people, including around 1,500 members and their kin.




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Chandigarh (PTI): The Congress on Thursday announced candidates for eight of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana, fielding former Union minister Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda and youth leader Divyanshu Budhiraja, besides two sitting MLAs.

The party has also fielded former MP Jai Prakash and leaders Satpal Brahmachari and Mahendra Pratap, according to the list released late Thursday evening.

The Congress is contesting nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. It has not yet announced its candidate for the Gurugram constituency.

The Aam Aadmi Party, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, will contest the Kurukshetra seat.

Congress general secretary and former Union minister Selja will contest from the Sirsa (reserved) seat and sitting MLAs Varun Choudhary and Rao Dan Singh from the Ambala (reserved) and the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seats, respectively.

Deepender Hooda, son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will enter the fray from Rohtak. He has represented the Rohtak parliamentary constituency three times in the past.

Jai Prakash has been fielded from Hisar, the Congress' Haryana youth wing president Divanshu Budhiraja from Karnal, Satpal Brahmachari from Sonipat and Mahendra Pratap from Faridabad.