| The Prime Minister's 'National Relief Fund' for the tsunami disaster has netted Rs 441.85 crore. | |||||||||
| The amount is the highest in recent years that the Prime Minister's relief fund has collected. The donation received during the Gujarat earthquake of 2002 stood at Rs 422 crore and the Orissa super cyclone of 1999 fetched Rs 100-125 crore. | |||||||||
| The amount is likely to go up if remittances to banks and online contributions are added to it. Donations received online had touched Rs 1.74 crore, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The consolidation of these figures is likely to be done at the end of the week, PMO sources added. | |||||||||
| Over 100 donors have contributed more than Rs 1 crore to the fund. Around 70 per cent of the donations has been received from corporate bodies both in the private and the public sector. | |||||||||
| PSUs alone have contributed over Rs 155 crore "" half the amount donated by the corporate sector and 35 per cent of the entire fund amount. A close second are public sector banks, with donations amounting to Rs 45 crore. The rest of the corporate donations came from business houses and industrialists. | |||||||||
| Oil sector PSUs were the big donors from the public sector. Indian Oil Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited together contributed about Rs 45 crore. The port trusts of various states also contributed a significant amount. | |||||||||
| The biggest donors among the corporates were software giant Infosys, which donated Rs 5 crore, and Reliance Industries, which gave Rs 5.5 crore to the fund. Of the other 30 per cent, state governments and municipal corporations contributed about Rs 70 crore. | |||||||||
| The Government of Karnataka donated Rs 20 crore, and Rs 10 crore each has come from Punjab and Bihar, Jharkahand and other state governments. | |||||||||
| There were also several thousands of rupees in small donations from school children. Daily wage workers have also donated to the fund. Big donations are still flowing into the fund and the Prime Minister was likely to receive such donations during his visit to Kolkata today. | |||||||||
| Officials said the Prime Ministers' National Relief Fund was a permanent body which usually received between Rs 5- 10 crore a year even if there was no national calamity or disaster.
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