NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 20, 2006: Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj, age 90, was appointed the 14th president of the Ramakrishna Mission at its 97th annual general meeting held at Belur Math in West Bengal over the weekend. The members expressed sorrow at the passing of Swami Ranganathanandaji, the 13th president of the Mission, on April 25 last year. During the meeting, the members reviewed the Mission’s many activities in the medical field, education and rural development. See Wikipedia, here, for more on Swami Gahanananda.
According to a second report of the meeting, here, The Mission started new centers in 2006 at Vadodara in Gujarat, Aurangabad in Maharashtra and Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh. In the medical field, an eye-care theatre was opened at the Muzaffarpur centre, a charitable dispensary with an eye operation theatre was started at the Kamarpukur centre. An intensive care unit and an operation theatre complex was set up at Vrindavan Sevashrama, a mobile unit was opened at the Itanagar centre, a blood component separation unit and a renovated neurosurgery ward were set up at the Polyclinic of the Lucknow centre.
In the field of education, A Faculty of Disability Management and Special Education was set up at the Coimbatore centre. Courses for vocational training, health awareness programs were started in jails and correctional homes by centers at Cooch Behar.
In the rural development field, the Union ministry of rural development awarded Nirmal Gram Puraskar to Lokshiksha Parishad of Narendrapur centre in recognition of the exemplary work for the promotion of rural sanitation in the country.
During the year, the Mission undertook extensive relief and rehabilitation programs in several parts of the country involving an expenditure of US$3.26 million, benefitting one million people belonging to 171,000 families in 2,075 villages. A number of rural and tribal development projects were undertaken with a total expenditure of $4.1 million.