The Center has said in a new response on the Right to Information that PM-CARES or the Prime Minister’s Fund for Assistance and Assistance to Citizens in Emergencies is a body “owned and established” by the government. The government’s response contradicted its recent claim that the fund was private.
The government made the statement while responding to the question of RTI candidate Commodore (retired) Lokesh K Batra on Thursday. However, he said that PM-CARES is not subject to the RTI law because it receives funding from private sources.
“This Fund (PM CARES FUND) is fully funded by donations received from individuals / organizations / CSRs [corporate social responsibility] / Foreign persons / foreign organizations / UPM and not at all financed by the corresponding government and administered by the individual as Trustees, which is a mandatory condition to invoke section 2 (h) of the Right to Information Act 2005 and therefore, PM CARES Fund cannot be considered as a public authority ”, the government’s response to RTI, seen by Scroll.inhe declared.
The controversy over ownership of PM-CARES erupted earlier this month after the fund’s deed of trust was made public. A clause in the document called the fund a private entity, exempting it from RTI’s scrutiny, according to NDTV.
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However, the fund has been registered with the Delhi Revenue Department, with the Prime Minister as Chairman and Chief Ministers as Trustees. Opposition parties have repeatedly raised questions about the fund’s transparency and questioned the need to create the reserve when the Prime Minister’s National Aid Fund already existed.
This is not the first controversy surrounding the substance. The trust was registered on March 27 of this year and the following day, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued an office memorandum qualifying PM-CARES as a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative to receive corporate donations.
According to documents accessed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, PM-CARES was defined as a “fund created by the central government” in the corporate affairs memorandum. But the deed of trust said it was not managed by the government and therefore not eligible for corporate donations.
The contradiction was addressed just two months later, on May 26, when the Ministry of Corporate Affairs added PM-CARES to the Companies Law, which prescribes eligibility for corporate social responsibility donations. The change in the Capital Companies Law was made retrospectively from March 28.
The PM-CARES fund was established with the stated goal of being a “dedicated national fund” to deal with “any kind of emergency or distress situation” after the coronavirus pandemic. Public sector companies, the military and banks have contributed millions of rupees to the fund.
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