PM-CARES fund is a body “owned by the government, controlled by the government and established by the government of India” but does not come under the RTI as it receives private funds. This is the reply given by the government.
It means the government itself will not have transparency in the fund owned, controlled and handled by the government. Initially, the government had made a recent claim on its website that the fund is private. This fund was set up for COVID-19 donations.
Now when the financial status is being questioned the centre has said in a new RTI reply that the PM-CARES fund set up for Covid donations is “established by the government” and therefore a public entity, in contrast to its own recent claim.
In a reply given by the government, said PM-CARES is a body “owned by, controlled by and established by the government of India” but does not come under the RTI or Right to Information law as it receives private funds.
“This fund is completely financed by donations received from individuals/organisations/CSRs (Corporates)/foreign individuals/foreign organisations/PSUs and not at all financed by the appropriate government and administered by private individuals as trustees, which is a compulsory condition to invoke section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, therefore, PM CARES fund cannot be considered a public authority,” the RTI reply dated December 24 reads.
However, the trust deed, under which the fund was established on March 27, said it was not owned or controlled by the government.
According to different sources, the controversy over PM-CARES’ ownership erupted earlier this month after the fund’s trust deed was made public. A clause in the document called the fund a private entity, exempting it from RTI scrutiny.
However, the opposition has been voicing over the transparency of fund right from when it was established. It has always criticized the government and questioned as to why there was a need to create the new trust when Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund already existed.
The PM-CARES fund has been registered with the revenue department of Delhi, with the prime minister as chairperson and senior ministers as trustees.
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