Haryana received ₹300cr in donations for state Covid relief fund: RTI reply

Haryana received ₹300cr in donations for state Covid relief fund: RTI reply

Ajay.Sura@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh: 23.07.2020

The Haryana government has received around Rs 300 crore in donation from persons and organisations for the state’s Covid-19 relief fund.

The amount is being used by the state government to provide aid to the needy who are facing hardships due to Covid-19 pandemic in the state.

The amount of donation under Haryana Covid-19 Relief Fund is being received in the shape of NEFT, RTGS, netbanking, UPI, IMPS, and cheques directly to the bank accounts.

As per RTI sourced information, the state received Rs 300.86 crore, of which Rs 265.36 crore had been deposited at Sector 10, Panchkula, branch of State Bank of India (SBI), Rs 34.91 crore at a private bank’s branch in Sector 22, Chandigarh, and Rs 59 lakh at Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) Sector 17 branch.

The information has been provided by the state public information officer (SPIO), Haryana Covid Relief Fund cell, finance department of Haryana, to Gurgaon-based RTI activist Aseem Takyar.

While details of amount received by the state has been provided, the department has asked the applicant to deposit an amount of Rs 11,000 for getting complete details of persons who had contributed to the fund. The demand of Rs 11,000 has been made from the applicant, as the information sought by him contained is in 55,00 pages and he has to pay Rs 11,000 at the rate of Rs 2 for one page of information, to get the complete information.

In his RTI application, Takyar sought the total amount received by the state in the Covid fund and the list of citizens, individuals, companies, government and non-government organisations, and others who had contributed amount towards Covid fund from March 2020 to date.