The All India Minority & Weaker Sections Council, an independent autonomous body, had announced the formation of the committee earlier this week, hinting that West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu has been shortlisted for the first Mother Teresa Memorial International Award.

In a letter dated July 7, to Arun Biswas, the president of the All India Minority & Weaker Section Council, the superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Nirmala has asked that "...the erection of the statue, the renaming of Park Street and the institution of the Mother Teresa Memorial Award be stopped; and that the Mother Teresa Memorial Committee with the office and proposed bank account be dissolved immediately." Sister Nirmala has said "...I completely disapprove of setting up this committee and of its havingits own office and bank account. Mother in her lifetime depended totally on divine providence in the form of spontaneous sharing by the rich and poor alike."

"...Mother did not allow any fundraising whatsoever to be conducted using her name or the name of the Missionaries of Charity, or our photos whether it was to benefit us or any other cause," she has written. She adds: "If the Lord wants the statue to be put up and the street to be renamed, he will provide for it in his own way, in his own time. "Neither the members of the Council nor the Committee members could be contacted at time of filing this report. Shyam Sundar Gupta, a former member of Parliament and former mayor ofCalcutta, has been made the chairman of the committee.