SANTHOSH CHANDRAN DOHA THE Indian Ambassador to Qatar HE Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa has nominated five new members to the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF) management committee.

With the nomination, the full-fledged 16-member ICBF management committee has come into existence.

Kareem Abdulla will be the president of the ICBF for the next two years.

The nominated members are Baby Kurian (Vice- President), Jetin Pathak (Treasurer), Anupindi D Sarma (Head of Public Relations), Ismail Nagur (Head of Repatriation Assistance) and Sheela Shenoy (Head of Medical Assistance.

Earlier, the president and seven management committee members were elected on April 20. The portfolio of each member was also decided on on Tuesday by the Indian embassy second secretary Anil Nautiyal who is also the chief coordinating officer of ICBF.

The elected members of ICBF are Aravind Patil (general secretary), Santhosh Neelakantan (joint secretary), Jaffer Khan (head of legal assistance & labour cases), Bilal Mohammed (head of awareness), Wilson Babu Bandela (head of death case assistance) and Ramachandra Shetty (head of supplies & minor assistance).

Milan Arun (head of sponsorship), the only woman candidate, was elected automatically to the committee on the lone reserved seat for women.

The ICBF management committee has been expanded for the first time by raising the number of members from 13 to 16. Heads ICBF help desk in Dukhan (HP Patel), Al Khor (Vishal J Mehta) and Mesaieed (Shivkant Mirkar) were added for the first time to the ICBF management committee.

Functioning directly under the Indian Embassy here, ICBF is engaged in supporting the needy and underprivileged members of the Indian expatriate community in Qatar and their families back home in India.