When MP Sachin rushed help to a needy school in remote Bengal village

Kolkata, June 13: He is not known to be a vocal politician. He has also been criticised many a times for speaking little in the Upper House despite his high stature. But Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the former Indian cricket captain and currently a Rajya Sabha MP, loves to do things quietly. And he did it again, for a school in a remote village in West Bengal.

According to a story published in Anandabazaar Patrika, Tendulkar has donated Rs 76 lakh from his MPLAD funds for the development of a higher-secondary school located in a village in West Midnapore district, about 150 kilometres from capital Kolkata.

A black board outside the under-construction school called Gobindpur-Makrampur Swarnamoyi Shasmal Shikshaniketan located beside National Highway 60 clearly mentions that the building is being constructed with funds from Tendulkar's MPLAD funds.

But how was a connection established between the former cricketer, who hails from Maharashtra, and a distant village in Bengal?

According to the ABP report, headmaster of the school Uttamkumar Mahanti acted as the bridge.

Tendulkar, an MP nominated by the President of India, never had the legal limitation of reaching out to Bengal and Mahanti, soon after learning this, wrote straight to the former for help after failing to get any assistance from the local MP and MLA. Even former Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra, who lost from this seat this year, was of little help. Mahanti, a diehard fan of Tendulkar, then wrote to the latter seeking help for the old school which was in a bad condition, said the report.

He had written to Tendulkar in March 2013 and just when he gave up hope of getting any reply, he got a letter back on August 7, 2014, and it said that Tendulkar would donate Rs 76 lakh for the school. Seventy-five per cent of the money arrived finally in September last year and the work started.

Fact is stranger than fiction. The teachers and students of the school believe in the saying now.

Oneindia News