Kozhikode: Cash flows into Snehasparsham project

KOZHIKODE: At a time when demonetization has affected people including industrialists, businessmen and all small and large scale traders, it was the snehasparsham project, initiated by the District Panchayath for the welfare of kidney patients that went unaffected during the ongoing crisis. Initially officials feared that their fund target from donations by the public would not be achieved due to the scarcity of lower denomination notes, but funds flowing into the Snehasparsham account have exceeded expectations.

During the Panchayath level fund raising programme, volunteers including ward members collected Rs 5 crore from the public, although collections were down during the initial days after the announcement on demonetization. On Sunday, the volunteers aiming to collect Rs 5 crore, conducted a massive drive within the Corporation limit, in addition to the fund collected from the municipalities.

Talking about the funds collected, Snehaspa-rsham coordinator, N Sreeraj said, “Our massive drive was announced exactly on the day when Prime Minister announced the demonetisation. We were doubtful about the fund raising drive due to the scarcity of lower denominations, fortunately we collected much more than expected.”

The money collected so far has been remitted into the Snehasparsham project account with SBT. This year the massive drive aims at helping not just kidney patients but also those suffering from psychological disorders and HIV patients. The future aim of Snehasparsham is to develop a kidney transplant center in Kozhikode which can help patients to carry out transplants at an economical price as compared to private hospitals here.