Tata trust says it didn't fund Kejriwal's political activities

The trust, however, said in 2008 it had agreed to grant Rs 1.25 crore for a five-year period to institute National RTI Awards by the NGO founded by Kejriwal, but turned down request for using some of the money for other purposes.

The Tata Social Welfare Trust on Monday said it did not donate any money for political activities to the Arvind Kejriwal-founded non-governmental organisation (NGO) Public Cause Research Foundation.

It, however, said the trust had in 2008 agreed to grant Rs 1.25 crore for a five-year period to institute National RTI Awards by the NGO but turned down a request for using some of the money for other purposes.

 

The trust said it had received a recommendation from Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy for assisting Kejriwal to raise awareness about the Right to Information Act (RTI) in October 2008, adding it “agreed to release Rs 25 lakh per year from 2009, for a period of five years, to help the foundation institute the (National RTI) awards”.

It further said Rs 25 lakh each was released to the foundation in 2009 and 2010.

The trust also released Rs 25 lakh in 2011.

“After receiving the grant for 2011, the foundation wrote to the trust that it would not be able to present RTI awards for 2011, and asked whether the grant instead could be used for the movement on the Jan Lok Pal Bill.

The trust informed the foundation that since the grant was meant for RTI awards, it could not be used for any other purpose,” it said. The foundation, accordingly, returned the grant of Rs 25 lakh for the year 2011 to the trust. There have been no further grants from the trust to the foundation, the statement said.