Chennai: Hearing aids donated to the children of DR MGR School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired by VK Sasikala were taken back by the company the very next day over non-payment and even six months on, the dues have not been cleared, CNN-News18 has learnt.
AIADMK leader Sasikala, currently in jail over a disproportionate assets case, had distributed the hearing aids to the children on January 17 to commemorate party founder MG Ramachandran's 100th birth anniversary.
A top official from the company told CNN-News18, “We did provide hearing aids to the school, but since we didn’t get the money (from Sasikala), we took them back the next day. It's been more than three months since this happened, but we haven’t received the money yet.”
The quotation of the hearing aids, accessed by CNN-News18, reveals that 245 kits costing Rs 18.13 lakh were distributed to the school children. Each hearing aid costs Rs 7,400 and these were procured from high-end brands Hansaton and Rexton.
However, sources privy to the developments said that efforts were taken to inform Poes Garden, the then residence of Sasikala, about it. Apart from funds for the hearing aids, the school also received a cheque of Rs 10 lakh. The cheque also bounced due to a “signature mismatch”.
Sources said the Poes Garden was informed about the cheque as well but no effort has been made to redress it despite an assurance of another grant.
School authorities were unavailable for comment. However, a source from the school, said, "The institute has received many funds from Sasikala and the late J Jayalalithaa. After the Chennai flood, the school received a generous grant from the AIADMK which was utilised to revamp infrastructure battered by the deluge."
A close aide of Sasikala denied any knowledge of the grant.
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