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...
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Transparency during a crisis -Anjali Bhardwaj
-The Hindu Proper implementation of the Right to Information Act is more crucial now than ever before Right to Information (RTI) applications seeking information pertaining to the PM CARES Fund have been stonewalled. No information exists on the official website of the Fund regarding the amount collected, names of donors, expenditure incurred, or details of beneficiaries. The trust deed of the fund chaired by the Prime Minister is not available for public...
More »PM CARES fund: Centre asks Bombay HC to dismiss petition seeking details of donations, expenditure
-Scroll.in The petitioner, a lawyer, also demanded that the government appoint or nominate at least two members from opposition parties for transparency. The Centre on Tuesday requested the Bombay High Court to dismiss a petition seeking that the donations and expenditure of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or PM CARES fund, – created to tackle the coronavirus pandemic – be made public, PTI reported. The petition, filed...
More »Here is why PM CARES should be scrutinised by the CAG -- not by independent auditors -Rohan Deshpande
-Scroll.in On Friday, the PMO refused to provide details about the fund under the Right to Information Act, stating that it was not a ‘public authority’. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 28 constituted a brand-new trust fund for public contributions – the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, bearing the catchy acronym of the PM CARES Fund. On Friday, the Prime...
More »GDP Growth Rate Slump: Another Blow to Modi Govt's Economic Growth Story -AK Bhattacharya
-TheWire.in/ Business Standard The rate of growth for India’s GDP has just about halved in just three years. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government’s economic growth story has suffered yet another huge knock. Along with that has come the official admission that the government’s fiscal deficit last year was as large as 4.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), much wider than the 3.8%provided in the Budget presented in February earlier this year. On...
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