Rebuilding Kerala: Crowd funding gets cold response

Thiruvananthapuram: Ten days since the state government launched the crowd funding scheme for building new Kerala post flood, the response to the scheme is as yet sluggish. No noteworthy promises have been made so far.

For projects that require crores of rupees, the offers received are paltry sums of 10 and 50 rupees. There are schemes for which even a single rupee has not been offered.

Consultants KPMG is in charge of the scheme and the concept itself was introduced by the global financial consultants. The scheme has provision for transferring funds from anywhere in the world to the place of their choice.

The government explanation for the cold response is that sufficient publicity was not given to it among the public, although each project is explained with pictures and its cost in the website. Contribution received for each is also mentioned there.

For the rebuilding of houses in certin panthayats and mjunicipalities, not a single rupee has been received. The same is the case with schemes in some of the worse flood-affected aras like Ranni and Pandanad.

It was hoped that the listed projects would be patronized by individuals, industrial organizations, associations, companies and expatriates.

In the light of the poor response, government sources indicate that more publicity would be carried out. Finance Minister also hinted that necessary changes will be made in the website.