Press Release
Several reputed magazines and newspapers have published articles about his noble acts. He has been named as ‘Atoning Angel’; ‘The Good Samaritan’ ‘Unsung Hero’ ‘The Saviour - Steering Destitute Home to New Life’ ‘King of the Streets’ ; ‘An Angel of Mercy’ ; ‘Raja who is a Real Hindustani’ and the list goes on. He is known to bring hope to the hopeless in Bangalore and dares to do what many social workers would not.Raja is persuaded to continue helping those in distress and plans to carry on the service till his last breath.
LPG CAP: B’LORE NGO SERVING FREE FOOD TO SHUT DOWN?
Abhirr V P CNN-IBN | October 12, 2012 08:06 am
Bangalore: Hundreds of destitute people may go hungry due to the government’s cap on LPG cylinders. The cap has risen pressure on NGOs who offer food, but say the new rule is hampering their work. At ‘Home of Hope’, a home for the abandoned, there is a fresh crisis. Now that the government has limited subsidised LPG cylinders to six, Auto Raja, the man who runs the home can no longer afford to feed the nearly 450 people who live there, as he needs two cylinders a day.
“For the destitute, for the poor, for the people who are dying the government is like their father and mother. If the government leaves them, where will they go? What can I do alone? The government should do something for the people” Auto Raja said.
Other NGOs across Bangalore are struggling too. Akshaya Patra, which recently served its one billionth meal, has been finding it hard to buy gas cylinders at market rates. Shridhar Venkat, Executive Director, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said, “We are serving 1.6 million children across the country and nearly 45 per cent of the children are in North India where the use of gas cylinders is very high, so this will increase costs by nearly Rs 3 crore per year and being an NGO we don’t have any resources to meet this.”
Auto Raja, who was one of CNN-IBN’s Real Heroes now says he’ll be forced to shut his charity home. He says he cannot continue with it if nothing is done to relax the cap on subsidised cylinders.