New Delhi: On Thursday Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked the co-chair and trustee of Gates Foundation, Mr.Bill Gates to adopt 1000 villages of Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand worst hit by Left wing Extremism and transform them into models of sanitation.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of recent MHA order to cancel the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a health advocacy group, majorly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
The licence was cancelled after the economic wing of RSS, the Swadesh Jagran Manch brought out a white paper on the influence of BMGF on India’s health sector.
The spokesperson of the Gates Foundation said that cancellation of the FCRA licence of the PFHI was not the agenda of the meeting, and said that the meeting focussed on core priority areas like health, urban sanitation, digital financial inclusion and agricultural development.
The spokes person also said that the BMGF is looking forward to work collaboratively with the Government of India to provide local and Global level technical expertise and achieve ambitious goals of Development.
Mr.Gates also discussed with Mr.Singh regarding new cheaper sanitation technology for treating “faecal sludge” and also suggested that new guidelines to be issued by the Food safety and Standards authority of India (FSSAI) to include mandatory levels of “salts and oils” in foods served under universal health programmes.
The Home Ministry requested Mr.Gates to organise health awareness programmes in India and focus on developing villages to make them ‘model villages” so that local people get inspired.
Union Home Minister appereciates the welfare works of BMGF, asks Bill Gates to adopt 1000 Villages hit by LWE
