At a time when aid is pouring into Nepal from all parts of the world, a man from Odisha is doing his bit.
Achyuta Samanta, founder of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (
KIIT University) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), has donated Rs 10 lakh to the quake-ravaged country.
Around 100 students of Nepali origin, who were studying in KIIT, have also left for their homes. Samanta hopes the students will be able to contribute to the mammoth rescue and rehabilitation efforts currently under way there.
"A young girl from KISS, Janaki Murmu, was part of the under-14 girls' football team that was stuck in Nepal. She has arrived safely," said Samanta at an event in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Nepal has been on the entrepreneur's mind for some time now. A campus of KISS in Kathmandu was on the cards and Samanta was to visit the Nepal capital on May 9. "I am coordinating the relief work from here. We had planned to visit Nepal to choose a site for our KISS campus there on May 9, but we will have to delay that for the time being. We will definitely go ahead with our mission once everything is all right," he added.
Samanta said five students from Nepal would be given free education at KIIT in a humanitarian gesture towards the country that has faced such large-scale devastation.
On his plans to expand KISS in the state and outside, Samanta added, "We are working hard to build 30 KISS units across the country and 20 in Odisha. We have started two KISS centres in Bangladesh and the response is good."
