PM CARES Fund is 'unnecessary' : CPI (M)

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday termed the Centre's initiative of setting up a separate fund named "PM CARES" to fight COVID-19 as "unnecessary."

The political organisation was of the view that decades-old Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) would have solved the purpose of collecting donations.

"The Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) has been in existence since 1948. This fund has reportedly an unspent balance of Rs. 3,800 crores. The accounts of the fund are transparent; audited by the CAG; and auto-generated receipts are given to the donors. Given this, many questions are being raised on why a new fund has been created. This new fund has as trustees, the Prime Minister and three other ministers without any opposition party or civil society leaders as members," the CPI(M) said in a statement.

The organisation further alleged there is no "transparency" and "accountability" pertaining to PM CARES fund as there is "no mention of maintenance of accounts, their auditor on the answerability of the decisions taken by these four trustees."

Notably, Prime Minister is the Chairman of this trust and its Members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.

The CPI(M) also said that state governments should also get a share of the funds collected under PM CARES as they also playing a significant role in combating the menace.

"Further, health is on the concurrent list and state governments have a major role in this area. Already the state governments are under severe pressure with the shrinkage of their resources including the GST payment defaults. Under these circumstances, given the federal principles of our Constitution, the amounts collected by this new fund should be transferred to the PMNRF and from there to the state governments for meeting the challenges of the pandemic and saving people's lives," read the statement.