The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES), a charitable trust under law, has told the Delhi High Court that the fund of the trust is not a Government of India fund and the amount Does not go to Consolidate Fund of India. Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, Under Secretary in the PMO, said in a reply, “PM CARES Fund cannot be brought under the purview of Right to Information (RTI) and also cannot be declared as a “State”.
Actually this answer has been given on the petition filed in the High Court, in which there was a demand to declare the PM-CARES Fund as a “state” under Article 12 of the Constitution. The petition states that the citizens of the country are aggrieved that there is a fund set up by the Prime Minister and with trustees like the Prime Minister and the Home, Defense and Finance Ministers, a fund has been created over which there is no government control. Is.
Srivastava told the court that he works in the trust on an honorary basis and the trust works with transparency and its funds are audited by an auditor, a panel prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. is a Chartered Accountant.
“In order to ensure transparency, the audit report along with details of the amount received by the trust and utilization of the funds is put up on the official website of the trust,” the reply said.
It states that all donations received by the trust are through online payment, check and/or demand draft. The amount so received is audited and the expenditure of the Trust Fund is uploaded on the website.
Srivastava, referring to a prayer against a paragraph in the trust deed, said that it was not made by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament or the State Legislature.
The petition, filed on behalf of Samyak Gangwal, states that the PM-CARES Fund was formed in March 2020 for a noble cause of helping citizens in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and it had received a lot of donations.
However, the petition states that a copy of the trust deed was issued by the PM-Cares Fund on its website in December 2020, according to which it has not been created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament.
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