PM 'CARES' The Next Big Scam? RTI Activist Says Govt Domain Misused

RTI activist Saket Gokhale has levelled a major allegation that the ‘PM CARES’ fund is a ₹32,000 crore scam. He has written in a Facebook post that “3 weeks ago, I asked the National Informatics Centre (NIC) as to how a "gov.in" website was allocated to PM CARES which has told Delhi HC that it is a private fund unconnected to Govt of India.”

He continued: “NIC now bizarrely claims domain was allotted under guidelines meant for govt depts” [government departments]. He has attached two screenshots with this post that show the guidelines issued by the government of India for allocating domains. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says that the government issues “gov. in” domains only for the President, Prime Minister, Ministries, Judicial bodies, governments of state and centrally administered UTs, and selected offices associated with the parliament.

The guidelines issued by the Central government make it clear that the “gov. in” domain is not issued to any other entities, institutions, or organizations besides the Government of India.

“Also, in trying to cover up this fraud, NIC has refused to furnish a copy of the "gov.in" website allocation request that was received from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for PM CARES”, further questioning “How did a private fund collect 32,000+ crores illegally using a govt website?”.  

The official website of the PM CARES fund says that it is established as a “public charitable trust”. Recently, a petition was filed in the Delhi High Court which submitted that it should be included in the definition of “state” under Article 12 of the Constitution, and also that it should be brought under the ambit of the RTI Act.

Responding to the petition, the Centre contended that the Prime Mininster Citizens Assistance And Relief In Emergency Situation Fund (PM-CARES) is not a government fund and the monies it receives do not go into the treasury of the Government of India and it therefore has no control over the fund.

Therefore, the Centre had argued that the PM CARES fund cannot be brought under the ambit of the RTI Act and neither can it be declared as part of the “state”.

 

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