Donition by Telugu Association-Melbourne to CM relief fund

Dr  Gopal Tangirala, President of  Telugu Association of Australia (TAAI) and Mrs. Vijaya Tangirala, Vice President of  TAAI met with Honourable Minister for Higher Education and NRI Affairs on Thursday 19th November 2009 to discuss issues relating to the recent attacks on Telugu and Indian students in Australia. Along with them, Dr. Ghazal Srinivas well known Ghazal singer, Dr. Srinivas Teerthala and Dr. (Mrs) Teerthala were also present at the discussions with the Honourable Minister.   Dr. Tangirala gave a brief report on the Telugu community in Melbourne and described the recent attacks on students and other migrants intolerable and unacceptable. The idea of a compulsory health insurance which is part of a ticket purchase for travel to Australia to help student and other temporary visitors to Australia was discussed with the Honorable Minister. Minister Sridhar Babu Garu responded positively and stated that the state government is already looking at this type of proposal and having some preliminary discussions with the central government. In addition, issues such as certain local educational consultants not representing factual conditions in Australia to prospective students were also discussed. Dr. Ghazal Srinivas and Dr. Srinivas Teerthala contributed to the discussions with their experiences and requesting the minister to implement some concrete solutions to improve the current situation with these attacks.   Dr. Tangirala invited the Honorable Minister to visit Australia to assess the condition there by meeting the local Telugu people and Telugu students personally. It would be an opportunity for the minister to learn of the situation there first hand and enable the minister to assess the situation with the student attacks.  Dr and Mrs Tangirala also presented a cheque from Telugu Association of Australia for one and half lakhs of rupees (Rs 150,000) to CM Relief Fund. These monies were raised by TAAI from its members to help the victims of the recent floods in the state. Honourable Minister Sridhar Babu thanked Telugu Association of Australia for its generous donation to help the flood victims and expressed that he would like to visit Australia in the near future.