New Delhi 13 MAY 2020. Nearly 50 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set up the PM CARES Fund, the trust that he leads on Wednesday decided to allocate Rs 3,100 crore for the fight against Covid-19.
A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said the PM CARES Fund Trust had decided to spend Rs 2,000 crore to buy ventilators, Rs 1,000 crore to take care of migrant workers and earmark another Rs 100 crore to support development of a vaccine against Covid-19.
This is the first time that the trust, which was formed days after India went under a national lockdown in March, has made an allocation. The PMO statement said the Prime Minister has thanked all the donors for their generosity in contributing to the PM CARES Fund which will support India’s fight against Covid-19
PM Modi had formed the trust on 27 March. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are the other members of the trust.
The government’s decision to create another fund had been sharply criticised by the opposition which had, lately pointed out, why the prime minister was not spending from this fund.
Wednesday’s PMMO statement did not say how much money had been mobilised by the government in the last 50-odd days. It only detailed the three expenditure heads.
According to the PMO statement, Rs 2,000 crore would be used to buy 50,000 ventilators being made in the country. These ventilators would be provided to government-run Covid-19 hospitals in all states and union territories for better treatment of the critical Covid-19 patients.
About Rs 1,000 crore from the PM CARES Fund would also be placed at the disposal of district collectors and municipal commissioners to strengthen their efforts to provide accommodation facilities, arrange for food, medical treatment and transportation arrangements of the migrants.
The money, which would be sent via the state disaster relief commissioner, would be released on the basis of the state’s population and number of Covid-19 cases reported from the state.
The PMO statement said R^s 100 crore from the PM CARES fund had been allocated to support the Covid-19 vaccine designers and developers. “A vaccine against Covid-19 is the most pressing need and Indian academia, start-ups and industry have come together in cutting-edge vaccine design and development,” it said. This money will be utilised the supervision of Principal Scientific Advisor.
