PM sends Rs 50K cheque to 'poor' teacher for sister's weddings

MEERUT: Helping out a Bulandshahr school teacher who said he was too poor to get his two sisters married, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mailed him a cheque of Rs 50,000 along with a letter signed by him that wished the would-be wife a long and happy married life.
“I was overwhelmed by the noble gesture of the PM,” Manjit Singh, a primary school teacher in Jatpura village in Bulandshahr’s Anoopshahr town, said on Friday.“It may have taken a long time for my letter to overcome red tape in our system, but the PM was very prompt in his response.”
Singh, who earns a paltry salary of Rs 2,000 a month, wrote a letter to the PMO in March 2 last year, when Manmohan Singh was at the helm, demanding either a better-paying job or a monetary assistance of Rs 3,64,000 that would enable him to pay the dowry for his sisters’ marriage.
The PMO responded to the letter two months later and asked the UP chief secretary to confirm the financial status of Manjit’s family.
But it took more than six months for the chief secretary’s office to forward the request — as the protocol in such matters demands — to the Bulandshahr DM’s office. By then the Modi government had assumed office at the Centre.
“After receiving the letter on December 17, 2014, SDM Anoopshahr ascertained the financial condition of Manjit Singh’s family and sent his report back to the UP government,” said Bulandshahr DM B Chandrakala.
In February this year, Singh finally received an envelope containing a cheque of Rs 50,000 and a letter from the PM, blessing his sisters. TOI has obtained a scanned copy of the letter.
In the letter the PM wrote: “I understand that because of poor financial condition you are not able to get your sisters married. I hope this amount will help, to some extent, in discharging your duties towards your sisters. I also bless your sisters for long and happy married life.”
Manjit said he was happy the PMO had been sensitive to his needs. He just wished there was a little more of it. “It's less compared to what I had demanded,” he said.