NEW DELHI, Nov 9: The National Culture Fund set up last year to preserve and promote Indian culture has found few takers with the Indian industry giving it a cold shoulder.

Set up with great fanfare by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the NCF was envisaged as a key instrument to revive and encourage people's interest in their cultural heritage.

But the response from the industry has been virtualy non-existent. Except for a token Rs 25,000 from the Hyderabad-based National Mineral Corporation, industrial houses have not contributed anything. Even the Government of India which was to provide an initial corpus of Rs 19.5 crore has handed over only Rs 2 crore during the current financial year, starving the Fund right at the beginning.

In fact, the contributions have been so poor that Human Resource Development Minister S R Bommai has sent out an appeal to MPs to do their bit to promote the Fund.

The Minister made a similar appeal yesterday at a meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Department of Culture where he said the initiative for setting up such a body had originated from MPs themselves.

The House panel which had suggested setting up of the Fund, had envisaged contributions from industrial houses, philanthropists and institutions.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.