Over 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the Pulwama attack. (File)
More than 80,000 people have come forward since February 14 to contribute over Rs 20 crore to 'Bharat Ke Veer', the contribution platform for the CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama terror attack, government said on Monday.
A total of Rs 46 crore has been collected and disbursed under the initiative to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers who lost their lives in the terror attack, the government said.
At least 40 troopers were killed and many were injured when an explosive-laden vehicle rammed into a CRPF convoy in Pulwama on the Jammu-Srinagar highway on February 14.
The 'Bharat ke Veer' website and mobile application was launched by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in April 2017. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar was also involved in the initiative.
Technically supported by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and powered by the State Bank of India, the website and app allow anyone to financially support the bravehearts of their choice or donate to a general corpus.
A person can donate a maximum of Rs 15 lakh to an individual trooper or the next of kin.
If the amount exceeds Rs 15 lakh, the rest of the money is diverted towards the account of another trooper or the Bharat Ke Veer corpus.
The platform is managed by a committee of eminent people of repute and senior government officials who decide to disburse the fund equitably to the families of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel on need basis.
The CAPFs are armed forces under the Union Home Ministry and comprise of Assam Rifles (AR), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), National Security Guard (NSG) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).