New Delhi: The craze among the public to buy a gift received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has forced the authorities to extend the date of bidding in the e-auction from October 3 to October 17.
According to the officials, the e-auction has been receiving great response from the general public and celebrities as well, which has forced the ministry to push the last date of auction to October 17.
“We have seen numerous bids daily, for some items the bid has gone as high as a crore, so we decided that we would extend the date of e-auction and give time to participate in the auction,” Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel told IANS.
The e-auction has also caught the attention of various Bollywood celebrities like Arjun Kapoor, Anil Kapoor tweeted about the auction, while famous singer Kailash Kher on Tuesday visited the National Gallery of Modern Arts in the capital to see the articles put on auction.
“Ministry of Culture has organised the 2nd round of E-auction of mementos received by the Hon’ble PM, at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. All the proceeds will go towards the #NamamiGange Project. To participate visit pmmementos.gov.in,” Anil Kapoor tweeted on Tuesday.
Earlier, a photo stand of Modi was sold for Rs 1 crore at the ongoing e-auction of gifts presented to the Prime Minister during his official visits to various parts of the country in the last six months.
The memento, which also carried a message from PM Modi in Gujarati, had a base price of only Rs 500. A silver Kalash with a coconut on top that was gifted to the Prime Minister by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also fetched Rs 1 crore at the e-auction. It carried a base price of Rs 18,000.
Among the mementos that sold for fairly higher amounts included a metallic sculpture of a cow feeding a calf. It received a winning bid of Rs 51 lakh against a base price of Rs 1,500.
Over 60,000 bids have been received through the e-auction by now and only 240 articles out of 2,700 could not attract any bid.