By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Dec 18:
While farmers’ stir against new farm laws is still continuing and the Centre enforcing strict restrictions along the Delhi borders, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi convene a special session of Parliament to deal with the issues of the agitating peasants.
Speaking to media, NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said that the Centre must convene a special session of the Parliament where the issue can be discussed threadbare with involvement of all political parties. Thousands of farmers have been camping along the Delhi borders for more than three weeks demanding justice, but the centre has failed to resolve their dispute. The farm laws were hurriedly passed without taking into consideration the farmers’ woes.
Enacted in September, the three farm laws are being projected by the Union government as reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and permit farmers to sale their produce wherever they want. However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension about these laws saying that these laws would pave the way to eliminate the protection and minimum price they get. These laws will wind up the “mandis”, leaving them at the mercy of corporate houses. Some of the farmers have laid down their lives, yet ruling BJP does not seem to be sympathising with the protesting farmers.
About the PM CARES fund, Tapase stated that as of December 2019, the Prime Minister National Relief Fund had an unspent amount of Rs 3,800 crore. Yet in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the PM CARES fund, was set up as a public charitable trust on 27 March and Corporate Ministry granted it the permission to receive funds under the Corporate Social Responsibility on 28 March, 2020. When PM’s National Relief Fund was already in existence, then why the separate PM CARES fund was set up ? And whether the PM CARES fund has any public accountability ? Tapase asked.
There is no express readability concerning the PM CARES Fund and therefore, it needs to be brought under public accountability, Tapase demanded.
It may be recalled that in April 2020, the Prime Minister’s Office had stated that PM CARES would not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, since the PM CARES fund consisted of private donations and not public funds.
