To commemorate the decennial celebrations of its formation, Indian expatriate forum Thrissur Jilla Souhrida Vedi (TJSV) has enhanced the compensation amount for its members’ families from the present Rs300,000 to Rs400,000.
The announcement was made at a recent briefing held as part of the annual general meeting of the forum. It was chaired by its chief patron and businessman C K Menon. At the meeting, new office-bearers were also announced.
The compensation of Rs400,000 will be paid to the relatives of a member in the event of his death either while being in Qatar or on vacation in India or elsewhere.
As part of completing 10 years of activities, the organisation has also decided to waive the annual membership fee of QR25 from those who have remitted the fee without fail in the five years ending on December 31, 2011. The forum has a membership close to 5,000.
The forum has also decided to institute annual scholarships to meritorious children of its members for such courses as medicine, engineering and nursing. The criteria for scholarships would be announced shortly, said the forum office bearers.
In another major announcement, it has also been decided to give an interest-free loan for those members who are building homes in their native place. Similar loans would also be given to those whose children are getting married or pursuing higher studies. The interest-free loans need to repaid within 24 months.
All the new schemes would be effective from January 1, 2012.
To make all the financial transactions of the forum transparent, it has also been decided to constitute a trust in Kerala.
Menon said the modalities for constituting the proposed trust have been completed and it would come into being shortly.
The forum’s Doha office has also started functioning round the clock since yesterday with the appointment of a full-time staffer.
Souhrida Vedi will continue with all its usual annual programmes like blood donation, talent meet, celebrations at Rumeila Hospital to coincide with the Qatar National Day on December 18, community gatherings to mark Eid and Onam, Christmas and New Year celebrations among others.
The forum has also elected its new office-bearers for 2011-13. K M Anil is the new president. V K Salim is the general secretary and C T Lohithakshan treasurer.
Other office-bearers include K M S Hameed, N M Kabeer, N M Ramachandran (vice-presidents), Nassar Karukapadam, Abdul Jabbar and P R Sreenivasan (secretaries) and Joy A Jose (financial controller).
