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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
VADODARA, Sept 13: Three years after it was banned from the M S University campus, youth organisation Oasis is again in the dock. First it was its perceived interference in university affairs which the NSUI exploited to get the organisation banned. Now it's the Youth Congress' turn to go after it.
Objections raised by some parents whose daughters are working as full-time volunteers of the organisation, and opposition from a few residents of Sherkhi -- where Oasis has set up `Friendship Land' -- have come in handy for its critics to throw dirt at it.
Oasis was started in 1991 by a committed band of individuals, who set out with the lofty agenda of changing society through a series of constructive activities like blood donation, tree plantation, personality development camps, among others.
Some of them have left the organisation since, either because they could not subscribe to its ideology or on petty grounds, but are now sniping at it in league with ``destructive elements in the Youth Congress'', allege insiders.
Most of the volunteers who stay at Sherkhi are young girls, who refuse to return home, which has raised the hackles of parents who say ``we have lost our daughters to Oasis.'' The girls contend they are majors, and capable of taking their own decisions.
One such parent is P C Nair, an IPCL employee, both whose daughters have been working as Oasis volunteers for the past eight years. ``I never doubted their activities in the past. But some of their actions raise a degree of doubt,'' Nair says, claiming support of at least half a dozen parents who ``don't want to go public.'' He has taken up the issue with Nagrik Forum.
When asked what prompted him to speak after so many years, Nair says his daughters refuse to come to home, a problem which started around two years ago. The Youth Congress prodded him to go to the press. Oasis used to oppose agitations on the campus, something that had earned it the NSUI's wrath; the latter accounted for most of them.
When it was banned, Oasis moved to rural areas and was given 10 acres land in Sherkhi village. The villagers say Oasis has not fulfiled its promises, like providing employment to villagers and education to their children. Some of them attacked Oasis premises on Tuesday.
The Youth Congress is exploiting the anger expressed by some parents and villagers. It is also highlighting the night stays of young girls on Oasis premises, besides questioning its source of funds. Gujarati litterateur and thinker Gunavant Shah's parting of ways with Oasis gave its detractors the stick to beat it with.
Vice-president of the Youth Congress Naval Bajaj says they object to the very way Oasis functions. ``If they have to work with the youth why do they go out of the city and to a remote area ?'', he asks. He claims the organisation has not organised any major activity in the past. The Youth Congress has demanded an inquiry into allotment of land to Oasis.
Managing trustee Dolly Shah says Oasis volunteers work in villages in areas like character building and self employment. She says her organisation receives donations from industrialists, both from Vadodara and outside. She claims Oasis has invited its detractors to stay with them on the campus to find out about their activities first-hand.
``It's easy to malign an organisation by questioning its source of funds and talking of girls staying out at night,'' observes an Oasis volunteer.
District collector Anil Mukim says an inquiry is on.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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