Data from the past few years shows that rupees 3,800.44 crores are lying unused in the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
New Delhi| The PM CARES fund (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund), which has been started to meet the mounting expenses to fight the COVID19 pandemic has seen millionaires and celebrities open their purse strings.
However, data from the past few years shows that thousands of crores of rupees are lying unused in the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
PMNRF has income exceeding its expenditure. At the end of 2018-19, it had an unspent balance of Rs 3,800 crore.
Data from PMNRF
India has had a Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) since 1948. In recent years, that fund has emerged as the primary focal point for the mobilisation of public donations in the wake of natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. On March 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown, the Union home ministry issued a notification declaring the COVID-19 epidemic in India to be a ‘natural disaster’ and invoking the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act to give the government coercive powers.
When heart-rending scenes of migrant workers and their families walking home on foot led to an outpouring of public anger and also public support for these lockdown victims, the PMNRF would have been the logical place to encourage citizens to donate to. Yet, on March 28 evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to announce the creation of a brand new fund:
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People from all walks of life expressed their desire to donate to India’s war against COVID-19.
Respecting that spirit, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund has been constituted. This will go a long way in creating a healthier India.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 28, 2020
While setting up the PM CARES fund, the government had clarified that “keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, a public charitable trust under the name of ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund)’ has been set up.” The PM is the chairman of this trust.
However, PMNRF also serves a similar purpose. The funds are used to render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities and assist partially to defray expenses of medical treatment for the needy. Pointing towards the unused funds, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday tweeted, “…Why not simply rename PMNRF as PM-CARES, given the PM’s penchant for catchy acronyms, instead of creating a separate Public Charitable Trust whose rules & expenditure are totally opaque? @PMOIndia you owe the country an explanation for this highly unusual step.”
Two days ago, PM Narendra Modi had urged people to contribute to the PM Cares fund. The appeal had led to massive donations from various sections of society. Billionaire Gautam Adani announced a Rs 100-crore contribution by his group’s philanthropy arm.
Tata Sons and Tata Trusts have pledged to contribute Rs 1,500 crore for the cause while Reliance Industries had made an initial contribution of Rs 5 crore, besides opening India’s first COVID-19 hospital in Mumbai.
Manoj, an advocate, asked the following questions on Twitter on March 29: “Is the settler/chairman—PM of India or Narendra Modi? The other members—in personal names or official capacity? What is the registered office address of the PM CARES trust?”
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