After 50 days of its inception, the PM Cares Fund created for accepting donations for the Covid-19 relief and rehabilitations has received below Rs 9,000 crore.
The special fund was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 28 and money started pouring in the initial week. By the second week of April 3, around Rs 6,500 crore were received as donations. According to highly placed officials, the initial enthusiasm has fizzled out and now the donation is limited to an average Rs 40 crore per day in the account opened in SBI.
According to officials who monitor the PM Cares Fund, the total donations received crossed Rs 8,800 crore by Friday (May 15). Citing the “thrifty nature” of the Indians, they point out that Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) got below Rs 2,200 crore for the past five years till 2019 March.
The overall corpus in PMNRF, which was set up in 1948, is currently below Rs 4,000 crore. This might have been the reason for Prime Minister Modi to create a separate fund to tackle corona crisis.
The Centre recently allotted Rs 3,100 crore from the PM Cares Fund for purchasing ventilators, welfare of migrant labours and vaccine research.
“Out of Rs 3,100 crore, a sum of approximately Rs 2,000 crore will be earmarked for the purchase of ventilators, Rs 1,000 crore will be used for care of migrant labourers and Rs 100 crores will be given to support vaccine development,” PMO said in a statement on May 13, a day after Modi announced the Rs 20 lakh crore package for self reliant India.
Film star Akshay Kumar was one of the first to donate Rs 25 crore soon after Modi announced the new Fund on March 28. Many corporates, including Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Anil Agarwal announce sizeable donation to the Fund. It is learned that many corproates made provisions for separate fund for their research and production related to the health care activities in relation to Covid-19 apart from making donation to PM Cares Fund.
The PM Cares fund triggered a big controversy with Opposition parties like Congress and Left questioning the need for it and seeking transparency in its operation.
They contended that there was no need for a separate PM Cares Fund while PMNRF is already there. Many political parties have demanded that revenue and expenditure of the PM Cares Fund should be made public.
Many officials feel that adverse campaign by the Opposition parties also hit the fund flow to PM Cares Fund. They also point out that there was a lack of awareness and campaign about the PM Cares Fund and its specific nature to “fight the Covid-19” pandemic.
In India, more than 5.4 crore people annually file Income Tax Returns and 44.57 crore have PAN Card. Considering these figures, the total collection of below Rs 9,000 crore to the PM Cares Fund in past 50 days is not inspiring.
