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| Dear Moneylifers, |  | |
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| Greetings! November has been a very gratifying month for us. It is almost as if our members have taken Thanksgiving seriously and made it a point to record their appreciation for the help we extended. First, there was a box of sweets for Shirish Shanbhag (shared with all of us) from someone who had his realty issue resolved at no cost through the Lokshahi Din. What made this especially important is that the consumer we helped was an advocate who did not know that this alternative remedy is quicker and inexpensive. |
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 Abhay Datar and AV Shenoy helped Franklin Rodricks, successfully get back Rs1 lakh which was deducted from his Yes Bank savings account under pretext of opening a trading account that he never asked for. The relationship manager also mis-sold a Yes Securities VSP product and debited Rs1.15 lakh, including Rs15,000 as service tax from Mr Rodricks' account. Mr Rodricks who came to the Daily Counselling session, was gracious enough to pass it forward with a donation. |
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| We are very conscious about requests to extend our support to those outside Mumbai. So it is exciting when we are able to help non-Mumbaikars. We are delighted that our experts could pool in their knowledge (Raj Pradhan and Abhay Datar in particular) to help NRI Alroy D’Silva, who faced some complicated banking and insurance issues. |
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| You will also be happy to note that a simple suggestion on twitter to @ekselens to file an RTI to find out about a provident fund transfer ensured action in seven days, when all his calls and efforts over 100 days earlier had not worked! Do take a cue and check out our RTI centre. |
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| The best one is from Chinmoy Adak, an engineer, from Singur, West Bengal, who was inspired by our work to do something similar with his batch-mates from his BE College, Shibpur. On 23rd November he wrote to share his success in helping his boat driver brothers at Digha where an HDFC manager had fraudulently sold them a Unit-linked Insurance Policy-ULIP and passed it off as a fixed deposit opened for them. The amounts were significant – Rs50,000 and Rs98,000 were the annual premium amounts, when they thought they had opened a fixed deposit! The employee, who cheated them returned their money in cash. We believe this cheating, indulged in by all banks must be stopped. Chinmoy lives in Bengaluru but keeps going to Kolkata and they plan to make themselves available to guide people regularly. We are keeping our fingers crossed. |
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 And finally, here is some good news from Indigo! The picture says it all and we are really delighted that the airline responded to complaints by going the extra mile. That is our own Dr Nita Mukherjee with Indigo staffers. Read what Achintya Mukherjee wrote to us as shown at the bottom of the page.
There are several other such successes, I will keep sharing them with you from time to time. |
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 Lets now get on to our plans for coming months. We hope you have registered to hear the dynamic Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and to join us in celebrating our 8th Anniversary on 13th January 2018. There is a huge response already, so do not miss this opportunity to interact with him at one of the rare events, which is only about us, the consumers!
Listen to Mr Goyal on “How Transforming The Railways Can Boost Our Economy” on Saturday, 13 January 2018 | Time: 4pm to 6pm. Venue: BSE International Convention Hall, 1st Floor, P. J. Towers, Dalal Street, Fort, Mumbai – 1. Register Free |
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| RTI Centre |
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| Our RTI centre is up and running. You will soon have a website that allows you to query RTI experts directly. Meanwhile, we have a diverse set of seminars organised by various experts. Our RTI fellows – Shrikrishna Kachave and Krishna Gupta have also been updating you with numerous examples of RTI success stories along with the weekly column by our consulting editor Vinita Deshmukh. Here are the RTI workshops lined up for December |
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| 8th December, Friday: Learn basics of RTI, & How to File Application to get desired information (Time: 4pm to 6pm) |
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| Mr Anil Galgali, Mumbai’s most prolific and successful RTI activists will conduct a special session for activists of Mira Bhaindar-based Satyakaam Foundation. |
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| Venue: Moneylife Foundation’s Knowledge Centre at Dadar, Mumbai. If you wish to join any of these sessions Register online or call. |
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| 13th December, Wednesday: Filing effective RTI application for all your Railway issues (Time 5pm to 7pm) |
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| Noted RTI activist Samir Zaveri will conduct a special session for railway commuters on using RTI for a variety of issues including medical facilities, lost articles, missing persons, harassment and, of course, dealing with tragedies, accidents and the aftermath. |
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| Venue: Moneylife Foundation’s Knowledge Centre at Dadar, Mumbai. Register online |
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| 18th December, Monday: Using RTI for obtaining information on Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) Projects (Time 5pm to 7pm) |
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| Noted RTI activist Sulaiman Bhimani, Founder-President of 'Citizens Justice Forum' is conducting a special session on how to get information on the SRA Project. We urge you to share this with NGOs who may want to tell their members about this useful workshop. Please also share it with your support staff who may need it. |
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| Venue: Moneylife Foundation’s Knowledge Centre at Dadar, Mumbai. Register online |
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| Programme Conducted |
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| 15th November: Mr Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information Commissioner, conducted a Workshop on learning basics of RTI, in Hindi. Also this was our first event that was broadcast on Facebook Live. Here is the link for Facebook Live |
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| You can also watch video of this Workshop on our YouTube channel. Here is the link |
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| RTI Workshop for your group |
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| If you are a college, social group, Lions, Rotary, NGO, connect with us and we will do a RTI session for you. This will be at NO COST to you in Mumbai or Pune by someone our panel of very eminent RTI activists. This could be in English, Hindi or Marathi. All you need is a minimum of 30-35 people (non-negotiable and serious commitment) and a venue – ideally with the possibility of a power point presentation. Call or Write to us at [email protected] or WhatsApp on +91-7045156415 (Please give your Name. email ID & Contact number). Our team will connect with you to work out details. |
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| Moneylife TV |
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The Moneylife TVhas reached about 1.9 million views with more than 17,300 active subscribers. This obviously means that you can now watch our videos from almost any part of the globe and enrich yourself though our Moneylife activities. Also, if you don’t want to miss on any of our videos then do subscribe to the Moneylife channel on YouTube here
Even better, you may also become a Member of Moneylife Foundation and join 75,300+ others so that you receive updates to our events, their coverage as well as access to our extremely valuable Tax Helpline, Credit Helpline and Legal Resource Centre absolutely free. To join now, click here:click here |
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| Helplines |
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| Legal Resource Centre: We have handled 1,508 queries since inception. We are really proud of what we are able to do at the LRC with the help of senior activists and that people from Mumbra to Malabar Hill walk in for guidance and get it. |
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| Our FREE Credit Helpline has answered over 2,686 cases. We are delighted at the support from Experian Credit Information Company to keep this effort going. Spread the word, so that those with a low score can get help from us. |
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| Our Tax Helpline is going great guns. It has already answered 2,784 queries. Our grateful thanks to CAs Mr Ameet Patel, Nikhil Vadia, Subodh V Shah, Ameya Kunte and others for their invaluable help to members. This comes to you FREE because of the support from Capital First. |
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| Remember, you can benefit from our work from all over the globe through our videos and helplines (Tax Helpline, Credit Helpline and Legal Resource Centre). There are all free of charge, but please do reciprocate by introducing our work to at least 10 people and getting them to become members. You may also like to donate to the foundation, which takes up issues that affect people like you and me. |
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| Donate Online |
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| Thank you for your support and look forward to your good wishes always. Do write to me with your ideas and feedback. |
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| Here are some of the messages we received: |
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From Achintya Mukherjee: “MONEYLIFE IMPACT. The airport Terminal Manager (Indigo) was there to meet us as some coordination between the counter and President's office failed. Nita was provided the wheel chair. At Vadodra, the ground staff was not only there with the wheel chair but also took this photograph with Nita. The lovely part was that within 10 mins, before our pickup could arrive, they had made out this little card with the photo pasted on it. It was a warm gesture even if instructed from Mumbai.
God bless Moneylife and Sucheta Dalal."
-Achintya. |
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| From ‘ekselens or @caharshpunjabi “@rtiindia is amazing...my PF transfer was stuck for 100+ days with PF office not responding to repeated mails, phone call and letters. Raised an RTI application..Got transferred in 7 days flat. Thanks @suchetadalal for suggesting this way out”. |
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| From Alroy D’silva “Dear Sucheta Ma’am and Moneylife Foundation team, I would like to thank you all for the support that you have extended in helping me to take up the issue with Karnataka bank and PNB Metlife. Because of your immense knowledge in the subject and expert advice from your members, the issue is now resolved. The deducted amount was credited back to my account on 23rd November 2017. Thank a lot once again and I am really proud to be a member of this esteemed foundation”. |
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| Best regards, |
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| Sucheta Dalal |
| Founder-Trustee, Moneylife Foundation |
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| Trustees: TS Krishnamurthy, Dr KC Chakrabarty, Walter Vieira, Sucheta Dalal, Debashis Basu and Dr Anupam Saraph. Special Invitee: Adv Jamshed Mistry | | | | Moneylife Foundation is registered with the Charity Commissioner of Mumbai, is an Affiliate member of OECD's International Network on Financial Education, is a Supporter Member of Consumers International, Development Partner of Advocates for International Development, and is a winner of the 10th MR Pai Memorial Award. | | |  | | | | Donations are eligible for tax benefits under Sec 80G of the Income Tax 1961 (50% tax exemption) and MLF is registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. 80(G) Reg No: DIT(E)/MC/80G/685/2010-11 dated 7.2.11 effective 8.+9.2010 | FCRA Registration No: 083781387 Donate Online | | | |
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