PM-CARES was created by PM Modi in March to deal with emergency or distress situations such as the coronavirus.
New Delhi:
The PM-CARES fund established for Covid donations is “established by the government” and is therefore a public entity, the center said in a new RTI response that appears to contradict its own recent claim on its website from that the fund is private.
In response, the government says that PM-CARES is a body “owned, controlled and established by the Government of India”, but that it is not subject to RTI or Right to Information law as it receives private funds.
“This fund is fully funded by donations received from individuals / organizations / CSR (corporations) / foreign individuals / foreign organizations / PSUs and not at all funded by the appropriate government and managed by private individuals as trustees, which is a mandatory condition to invoke section 2 (h) of the Right to Information Law, therefore, the PM CARES fund cannot be considered a public authority, “says RTI’s December 24 response.
But a deed of trust under which the fund was established on March 27 said it was not owned or controlled by the government.
The document has deepened the confusion about PM-CARES after a contradiction emerged in official documents. It now appears that while the fund has been designated as a government entity receiving millions of rupees from various donors, it is under no obligation to disclose them as required for such organizations.
The PM-CARES Trust has been registered with the Delhi Revenue Department, with the Prime Minister as Chairman and the Chief Ministers as Trustees. But the trust deed that was recently made public on the fund’s website did not define it as a government trust.
PM-CARES or the Prime Minister’s Fund for Citizen Assistance and Aid in Emergency Situations was created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March to “deal with emergency or distress situations such as the coronavirus pandemic.”
The trust deed stated: “The trust is not intended to be and is not in fact substantially owned, controlled or financed by any government or any instrument of government. There is no control by either the central government or any state government, either directly. or indirect, in the operation of the trust in any way “.
One day after its registration, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued an office memorandum qualifying PM-CARES as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to receive corporate donations, making it a government entity.
But the deed of trust from a day earlier (March 27) said it was not managed by the government, so PM-CARES could not have been eligible for corporate donations.
The contradiction continued until almost two months later, on May 26, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs incorporated the PM-CARES Fund into the Companies Law retroactively as of March 28.
For two months, PM-CARES was a private entity that received corporate donations.
.
