MPs & journalists join hands for a cause

Members of Parliament and journalists faced off on Saturday at the third edition of "Batting 4 Life" Twenty20 cricket match, dedicated to raising awareness about preventable childhood diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Organised under the aegis of the recently formed Political Leaders Coalition for Child and Adolescent Health (PLCCAH), the event is one of the first steps of the trust to bring together parliamentarians and journalists to create a positive environment and provide policy direction for addressing issues related to child and adolescent health and raise awareness about cost saving methods of preventing them, such as through immunisation.

The team of parliamentarians registered their first win against the journalists at Batting 4 Life by defeating the media team by 82 runs at the Delhi Public School (Mathura Road) ground here.

The game was watched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who was joined by his cabinet colleague and Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan.

"This is a great initiative in preventive healthcare to increase consciousness in society, to educate people, to make them aware and you've chosen to integrate a popular sport, cricket, as an instrument of creating awareness in this regard. Two of the noisiest communities of India - journalists and politicians -- are playing with each other today so that the actual loud voices that are needed in support of health programmes reach the right places," Jaitley said in a release.

Some of the dignitaries who joined the session to express their support for child survival included former cricketer and BCCI selector Saba Karim, former cricketer Mohd. Kaif, Rakesh Kumar, joint secretary, ministry of health & family welfare, Sanjay Jaiswal, Member of Parliament and managing trustee, PLCCAH and PD Rai, MP and member of the governing council.

While the journalists' team was led by Rahul Kanwal, executive editor, India Today Television, players on the MPs side included Babul Supriyo, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Manoj Tiwari, Kamlesh Paswan and Dushyant Singh among others.