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The mystery of Prime Minister s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) and the attempts by everyone in the Union government to keep all information about it secret makes mockery of transparency in public life. Take, for example, the fact that PM CARES Fund is listed as a public charitable trust, although the prime minister (PM) in his official capacity is the
ex-officio chief of the board of trustees, which includes Union ministers of defence, home affairs and finance, who are
ex-officio trustees of the fund. The defence ministry website seeks donations for this Fund and, yet, says it does not have any information about the Fund.
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Social media, several organisations and media continue to raise questions about the structure, accountability and transparency of the Prime Minister s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) which is being labelled as a private trust by every government authority. Amidst all this, a query filed under Right to Information (RTI) shows that this private trust was given the .gov.in domain that is reserved for government authorities.
Responding to an appeal filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) under the RTI Act, the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which manages the .gov.in domains, says, .the domain pmcares.gov.in was allotted to PMO (apex body) complying with the guidelines for allocation of registration at the third level under .gov.in domain zone dated 23 October 2019 , issued by the internet governance division, ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY).
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Even while the government is tightening regulation, compliance and reporting requirements for all trusts and non-government organisations (NGOs), the newly formed PM CARES Fund is listed as a private trust, although the prime minister (PM) in his official capacity is the
ex-officio chief of the board of trustees. This has led to a furore on social media, with several organisations and media organisations raising questions about structure, accountability and transparency.
The trust deed as shared by the Prime Minister s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) alleviates any direct responsibility on the trustees. It also hides several important details citing fiduciary relationship or privacy of third party .