Form a foundation to provide street lights, power plants to villages in Tamil Nadu
With the objective of ‘giving back to society,’ a Nagarathar couple living in New Jersey has formed Solar Village Foundation (SVF), a charitable trust, to provide free solar solutions to villages in Sivaganga district and other parts of Tamil Nadu.
Within two months after forming the foundation and pledging Rs. 5 lakh, the couple – N. Nachiappan and Shanthi Nachiappan – flew down to Kandramanickam, their native place, and launched the activities on Friday.
Sub-Collector of Devakottai Asha Ajith and Tamil scholar Ponnambala Desigar of Kundrakudi Mutt launched the activities – providing solar street lights, solar power plants to schools and temples, solar smart classrooms and camps to educate people about use of solar power.
Thirty solar street lights were installed in Kandramanickam and Therkupattu villages and 1 KV Solar power plant set up for Manicka Nachiamman Temple at Kandramanickam. T.C. Meyyappan and Kaveri Meyyappan of Kandramanickam, who presently live in New York, donated Rs. 4 lakh for installing solar street lights in the village, he said.
The foundation has identified 38 other villages in the district and two villages in other districts for providing solar street lights and launching other activities in the first phase before rolling out the activities to other villages in the State, Mr. Nachiappan said.
Soon, two government schools in Kandramanickam would get solar smart classrooms, he said. The classrooms would be established with 50% subsidy from SELCO India, a solar energy company, he said. The foundation would also organise camps to educate people on use of solar energy, he added.
“Instead of asking the government what it did for our village, we asked ourselves what we have done for our village and came out with the foundation,” Mr. Nachiappan said. He was overwhelmed by the response to the project, he said. Soon after launching the activities, he received many calls from Tamil people living in the US, offering to donate for the activities, he said.
The projects would be funded through donations from Tamils living abroad, he said adding they could adopt villages individually or form groups. There were more than 1,500 Tamil families in New Jersey alone and funds would not be a constraint, he said.
Source: thehindu
