IT Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec 27:
The union government has stated that the PM CARES Fund set up for coronavirus donations is “established by the government” and a public entity and receives private donations, but it does not fall under RTI.
This reply to the RTI query contradicts the government’s recent claim on its website that the fund is private. According to a report by NDTV, in the RTI reply, the Modi government has said that PM-CARES is a body “owned by, controlled by and established by the government of India” but does not come under the Right to Information law as it receives private funds.
“This fund is completely financed by donations received from ndividuals/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,” RTI reply of December 24 said.
However, according to a trust deed under which PM Cares fund was established on March 27, it was not owned or controlled by the government. The document has created more confusion over PM-CARES after a contradiction emerged in official documents. It now appears that while the fund has been designated as a government entity that receives crores from various donors, it is not bound to disclose them as required for such organisations, reported NDTV.
The PM-CARES trust has been registered with the revenue department of Delhi, with Prime Minister as chairperson and senior ministers as trustees. However, the trust deed made public recently on the fund’s website does not define it as a government trust.
“The trust is neither intended to be or is in fact owned, controlled or substantially financed by any government or any instrumentality of the government. There is no control of either the central government or any state governments, either direct or indirect, in the functioning of the trust in any manner whatsoever,” says point 5.3 of the Deed.
PM Cares trust was registered on March 27. On March 28, the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued an office memorandum qualifying PM-CARES as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to receive corporate donations.
Companies Act defines eligibility for corporate donations as: “Contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government or the State Governments for socio-economic development and relief and funds for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women.”
In August 2020, RTI activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) had filed an application, seeking details about the number of requests and appeals received and disposed of by Modi’s office each month since April this year, as well as the information related to PM CARES and the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. On August 14, the prime minister’s office responded with the overall data, but refused to divulge information specific to the two funds.
