₹268cr in CM’s Covid relief fund lies unused

₹268cr in CM’s Covid relief fund lies unused

Kiran.Parashar@timesgroup.com

10.06.2020

Bengaluru: The state government has not utilized even a single rupee of the Rs 268 crore collected under the Chief Minister’s Covid-19 relief fund to tackle the pandemic in Karnataka, a reply to a Right To Information (RTI) query has revealed.

In response to questions raised by T Narasimha Murthy, an RTI activist, the government said that it received Rs 267,72,37,574 through donations to tackle the spread of Covid-19, but the money has been kept aside as an emergency fund. The money was donated by individuals, institutions and boards and corporations apart from others across the state between March 25 and May 19.

Murthy suggested he was flummoxed with the replying, saying, “I am unable to fathom what constitutes an emergency according to the government. We saw the plight of migrant workers, many of whom walked back to their hometowns and how they suffered. The state government could have arranged vehicles for them using this money. But it chose to save the money for reasons best known to them.”

Officials said the government expected more money to flow into the fund but that did not happen. At the same time, funds allocated to the disaster management authority and money of various departments was abundantly used to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Though the government claims that funds spent by the departments would be reimbursed from the relief fund corpus, it’s unlikely to happen given the state’s dismal financial condition.

Upgrade facilities

The chief minister’s office has a different argument. CMO officials say departments have been utilizing their funds to tackle Covid-19 and the CM’s relief fund could be utilized for other purposes.

Besides Bengaluru Urban, there are other districts like Kalaburagi, Raichur, Belagavi, Yadgir and Bidar where the number of cases has been spiking. “We want to upgrade health facilities and are coordinating with the health department to prepare a plan,” sources said.

Asked about the propriety of the departments using their funds and not the Covid-19 relief fund to battle the pandemic, the CMO said departments have used a limited part of their allocations and money from the CM’s relief fund would be released to them in the near future.