PM-CARES grants meagre, says Jairam

PM-CARES grants meagre, says Jairam

Congress leader says fund not being used to alleviate the plight of migrants

29/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,NEW DELHI

Jairam Ramesh

Two months after the PM-CARES fund was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh on Thursday raised a host of questions on the utility of such a fund when millions of migrant workers are still struggling to reach home.

Quoting news reports, Mr. Ramesh said nearly ₹9,677 crore has been collected under the fund. And another ₹2,098.2 crore had been pledged to the fund as of last week. Of this, only ₹3,100 crore had been released. This at a time when millions of migrants were forced to walk home in the absence of assured transport. The workers were also being forced to pay exorbitant amounts for tickets on special trains, he said.

“The ‘Modi Fund’ released only ₹1,000 crore for migrant workers 15 days ago. Why not more? Why the delay,” Mr. Ramesh asked. Another ₹2,000 crore was spent on purchasing “Made-in-India” ventilators in Ahmedabad, which many news reports had alleged were not functioning properly, he said.

The Congress leader further asked why the “Modi Fund” was not used to procure sufficient personal protective equipment when there had been desperate calls from doctors, nurses and other essential workers for it.

“Testing is a key element of dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Why is the ‘Modi Fund’ not being used to procure enough RT-PCR tests,” he asked.

Mr. Ramesh reiterated the question that the Opposition has been asking on why was a new fund instituted when a PM National Relief Fund, Chief Minister Relief Funds and State Disaster Management Authority Funds existed. “Is it because none of them can be used for PR of PM?” he asked.