Congress accuses govt of shielding PM Cares Fund

Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of shielding PM Cares Fund from any kind of scrutiny and questioned the origins of creating this reserve.

“It is abundantly clear that the BJP government is making desperate efforts to shield PM Cares Fund from any kind of scrutiny. Was the fund set up by the central government as concluded by Ministry of Corporate Affairs? If not, who set up the fund and in what capacity,” Congress leader P. Chidambaram asked.

The former Union finance minister’s comments came after Supreme Court refused to direct the central government that it transfer contributions made to PM Cares Fund to National Disaster Response Fund for battling Covid-19 pandemic.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram asked if the fund was not set up by the central government, why are the PM and three Union ministers serving as trustees, and who appointed them as trustees.

“If the fund is a privately established fund, why are donations to the fund counted against CSR? Will donations to other privately established funds be also counted against CSR,” he asked in his tweet.

The Rajya Sabha member questioned as to who authorised Ministry of Corporate Affairs to make a retrospective amendment to Companies Act inserting the name of PM Cares Fund in the schedule.

He wanted to know if the ministry would insert names of other privately established funds as well in the said schedule.

“Retrospective amendment in favour of a privately established fund is obviously an act of favouritism and discriminatory. It will be challenged,” he added.

BJP president J.P. Nadda had earlier said Supreme Court judgement was a “resounding blow to nefarious designs” of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his “band of rent a cause” activists.