After father’s plea, PM Modi grants Rs 30 lakh for girl’s aplastic anaemia treatment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sanctioned Rs 30 lakh for a 16-year-old girl suffering from aplastic anaemia. Lalit’s father had written a letter to PM Modi seeking help for her treatment.

"I want the government to help my daughter in getting the treatment. I have sold my land. My house is mortgaged. I have spent Rs 7 lakh on her treatment already. If she cannot be cured, I wished to die," news agency ANI quoted Sumer Singh as saying.

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Following this, PM Modi’s office released the money from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

"A hospital in Jaipur told me that she needed a bone marrow transplant from her brother to survive as hers had completely become useless. They told me the operation alone would cost around Rs 10 lakh," he said.

"I went to Rajveer Singh, a parliamentarian from Etah. He gave me a letter and asked me to deposit it in Delhi. He assured me that I would get the money I needed. I got no response, even fifteen days later. I went to Delhi again and took the letter back to Jaipur. The doctor told me that I needed to arrange more money for the treatment. I had received some money from PM's Relief Fund but that wasn't enough,” ANI quoted him as saying. 

Aplastic anaemia is a rare disease in which the body fails to produce blood cells in sufficient numbers. Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow by stem cells that reside there. Aplastic anaemia causes a deficiency of all blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

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It is more frequent in people in their teens and twenties, but is also common among the elderly. It can be caused by heredity, immune disease, or exposure to chemicals, drugs, or radiation. However, in about half the cases, the cause is unknown.