BANGALORE: ISKCON Bangalore President Madhu Pandit Das accused former KPCC working president D K Shivakumar of misleading people by highlighting only certain portions of the Legislative House committee report, favourable to his line of argument. In a press release, Das said Shivakumar did not present the complete picture on the issue during his recent press conference. Das alleged that the MLA did not present relevant documentary evidences of various officials and departments, deliberations and reasoning that led the committee to give a clean chit to ISKCON and the Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF). Das stated that even the committee agreed that showing poor children's photo and video CD in India and abroad for collecting funds damaged the reputation of the country and stated that evidences presented before the committee concluded that though the APF raised funds from foreign countries, there was no evidence that the foundation acted to bring discredit to the country.While producing a RTI reply that the department had not given permission to collect funds to any NGOs, including the APF and ISKCON from the Human Resources Department, Das alleged that Shivakumar suppressed the written communication of the government officials permitting the APF to collect funds that was presented in front of the House committee. "The written communication states that as per the guidelines of the Government of India, it is not wrong for the APF to raise donations. The government directed the concerned parties not to collect donations from the parents of the beneficiaries and we have not done that. Moreover the guidelines of the Revised National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education 2004, Clause 44 states that voluntary community support for Midday meal is to be encouraged," Das added. He also stated that the Principal Secretary of education department too stated that if the NGOs raised funds from other sources within the framework of the law, there was no need for permission from the government.
