The PM’s fund has three new trustees, including the illustrious Ratan Tata

The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES) is all set to enter a new phase. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to widen its board of trustees. Three new trustees were inducted in a meeting chaired by the PM himself. The Union Home Minister and the Finance Minister are already the fund’s trustees. The three new members are former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas, former Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda and industrialist Ratan Tata, all of them octogenarians. The Advisory Board to PM CARES would have Rajiv Mehrishi, the former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Sudha Murthy, former Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, and Anand Shah, co-founder of ‘Teach for India’ and former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation. This now gives PM CARES some semblance of a public trust rather than a government body. Modi said the participation of new trustees and advisors will provide ‘wider

perspectives to the functioning of the PM CARES Fund’ as their vast experience in public life would impart further vigour in making the fund more responsive to various public needs. It is true though this should have been done at the time of formation of the fund.

In fact, the fund drew flak from all quarters for being ‘redundant’ as the Prime Minister Relief Fund already existed for such exigencies. So what was the need to have such a fund in the first place? Besides, they objected to the fact that the Government kept it away from the CAG audit’s

ambit. The Government’s stand has been that it doesn’t get Government funding, rather only private funds. However, that is debatable as PM CARES has allegedly received multi-million funds from PSUs, Government departments, etc which run on exchequer’s money. It goes without saying that once the name of Ratan Tata is associated with PM CARES, it would give validation to its motives and ensure transparency. Besides, if the fund has to have respectability, the money must be used judiciously. Unfortunately in the past, there were reports of substandard medical equipment being bought by the PM CARES money. Every penny counts and must be spent transparently, whether the money is received from a private enterprise or a PSU. Let’s hope that Ratan Tata’s trusteeship brings about a radical change in the PM CARES disbursal of funds.