-The Hindu Lok Sabha passes taxation Bill; Congress, Trinamool MPs say it is meant only to clear the fund. The Lok Sabha cleared the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020, here on Saturday, despite strong criticism from the Opposition which said the Bill was aimed at giving an “all clear to the PM CARES Fund”. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Bill will replace an ordinance brought...

-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...

Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...

-Hindustan Times The petitioner demanded that at least two members from the Opposition parties should be included in the trust. The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday issued notices to all trustees of PM-CARES Fund and the Union government asking them to submit details of the amount collected and utilisation of the funds. The court was hearing a petition filed by a Nagpur-based lawyer, Arvind Waghmare, who sought the government to...

-The Telegraph What transparency? Website does not specify contributions, spending The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to provide copies of the trust deed of the PM CARES Fund, besides those of the government orders, notifications and circulars related to its creation, saying the fund is not a public authority and is therefore exempt from the Right to Information (RTI) Act. “PM CARES Fund is not a public authority under the ambit of Section...