The PM Cares Fund received over Rs 3,000 crore in donations from India and abroad till March 31. An audit report on the PM Cares site has shown the total donation amount till March 31
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had donated Rs 2.25 Lakh from his own pocket as the “initial corpus” to the Fund.
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The PM Cares Fund, which was formed in March this year by the union government to battle the coronavirus pandemic, received Rs 3,076 crore till March 31. In an audit report published on the PM Cares Fund website, a declaration has been made on the total donations received from India and abroad till March 31.
According to the audit report made public on the PM Cares site, Rs 30,76,62,58,096 was the final balance of the bank account linked to the Prime Minister’s Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM Cares Fund). However, the donations received after March is not known yet.
The report, which is made public on the PM-Cares Fund website, shows the final balance of the account to be Rs 30,76,62,58,096. Of the total amount, Rs 3,075.85 crore is known to have come from domestic contribution while 39.67 lakh from foreign contribution. The details of the donors have not been made public by the government yet. Also Read – ‘Democracy or Dictatorship’: Twitter Slams Govt For Scrapping Question Hour Due to Covid-19, Asks ‘Then Why Are Students Asked to Attend Exams?’
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram took to Twitter to question why the “names of these generous donors not been revealed.” Also Read – ‘Will FM as Messenger of God Please Answer’: Chidambaram Taunts Sitharaman Over Her ‘Act of God’ Remark
“But the names of these generous donors will not be revealed. Why?
“Every other NGO or Trust is obliged to reveal the names of donors contributing more than a threshold amount. Why is the PM CARES FUND exempt from this obligation?
“The donee is known. The trustees of the donee are known. Why are the trustees afraid to reveal the names of the donors?,” Chidambaram sought to know identities of donors in a series of tweets.
Notably, this comes at a time when the opposition has been demanding more transparency with the PM-Cares Fund. Multiple pleas seeking to know details of the fund have also been filed in courts.
The PM-CARES fund was formed on March 27 this year, three days into the lockdown, and is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other ex-officio members of the trust are Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Recently, the Supreme Court said the funds from the PM-CARES Fund need not be transferred to the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) and individuals can voluntarily contribute to the NDRF. The apex court had dismissed a petition seeking transfer of all funds from PM CARES Fund to NDRF.