NEW DELHI: Defending the PM CARES fund, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it was a mechanism envisaged to attract voluntary donations, unlike other disaster management funds.
In an affidavit filed in the SC, the government stated that the existence of the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) does not prohibit setting up of PM CARES fund — launched by PM Narendra Modi on March 28 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic — as it provides for voluntary contributions.
The Centre’s affidavit came on a PIL filed by Prashant Bhushan’s NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, which asserted that in the face of the health crisis, instead of utilizing the NDRF funds, a separate fund has been set up which is in direct violation of the provisions under the Disaster Management Act (DMA).
However, the affidavit stated: “...There does exist a national disaster response fund as stipulated under Section 46 of the DMA 2005 which so far consisted of a fund in the form of budgetary provisions made by the central government in NDRF and state governments and the central government in state disaster response fund without any private contribution."
“It is submitted that there exists a fund stipulated under section 46 of DMA which is called the NDRF. However, mere existence of a statutory fund would not prohibit the creation of a different fund like PM CARES which provides for voluntary donations.”