By Our Special Correspondent
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the people for contributing wholeheartedly to the PM CARES Fund as he chaired its meeting which was also attended by newly-nominated trustees former Supreme Court Justice K.T. Thomas, former deputy Lok Sabha speaker Kariya Munda and Ratan Tata, the PMO said on Wednesday.
Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the PM CARES Fund on Tuesday during which a presentation was made on the various initiatives undertaken with the help of PM CARES Fund, including the PM CARES for Children scheme which is supporting 4,345 children, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
The meeting was attended by PM CARES Fund trustees Union home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Newly nominated trustees of the PM CARES Fund – Justice Thomas, former Supreme Court judge; former deputy Lok Sabha speaker Munda and Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons – also attended the meeting.
It was discussed that PM CARES has a larger vision of effectively responding to emergency and distress situations, not only through relief assistance but also by taking mitigation measures and capacity building, it said.
The trust also decided to nominate some eminent persons for the constitution of an advisory board to PM CARES Fund, including Rajiv Mehrishi, former Comptroller and Auditor General of India; Sudha Murthy, former chairperson, Infosys Foundation; Anand Shah, co-founder of Teach for India and former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation.
The PM CARES Fund, set up to deal with emergencies such as the Covid pandemic, saw its corpus grow nearly three-fold to Rs 10,990 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal, while the disbursal rose to Rs 3,976 crore, according to the latest audited statement. The disbursal included Rs 1,000 crore for migrant welfare and over Rs 1,392 crore for procurement of COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The PM CARES FUND generated a lot of interest immediately after Prime Minister Modi announced its formation after the COVID-19 outbreak and appealed for donations, prompting several private firms, government bodies and individuals, including celebrities to donate money.
Comments