The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-Cares) attracted controversy right from the start. A response by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to an RTI query has raised more questions on the legal status of the PM Cares Fund.
As per reply to the RTI query, the domain name ‘Pmcares.gov.in’ was created in 2019 — months before it was officially set up — and is owned by the Prime Minister’s Office.
WHAT IS THE RTI?
RTI activist and retired Naval officer Lokesh Batra filed an application with the NIC asking how the official website for the PM Cares Fund has been given a “gov.in” domain name.
The response received from the NIC on October 9 revealed that the domain name “pmcares.gov.in” was given to the PMO as an “apex body” under the rules on October 23, 2019, by the Internet Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).
This is when the PM Cares Fund was officially formed over four months later — in March 2020 — to address the emergency situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government has so far kept the stand that the fund is meant for public donations which would be used for relief efforts, medical care and research into treatment for Covid-19. The fund is open for contributions from individuals, corporates, government companies as well as foreign donors.
WHAT RULES SAY?
The rules issued by MEITY state that the government domain names can be assigned only for specifically identified Central government entities.
Batra, in his RTI, asked how the PM Cares Fund, which is a registered charitable trust, could have been given an internet domain name against the rules.
The rules also state that exceptions can be made if a request is received from the Secretary of the government organisation.
However, the government has stated that PMC is a “public charitable trust”, not supported by government funds or administered directly through a government department.
The reply from the NIC CPIO has, however, not given details of the communication that was received under the MEITY rules from the PMO to create the domain name, and claims that this information is “third party information” that would have to come from the PMO.
The RTI request has been sent forward to the PMO by the NIC.
It now remains to be seen under which rules this domain name was created, and what reasons were given by the PMO to create the website, months before the PM Cares Fund was officially created.
Speaking to India Today, Commodore Batra said the RTI reply has thrown up several questions. “The government has said the fund is a public charitable trust. How then is it under the PMO as an apex office? The government has to explain,” Batra said.
About PM Cares
The legal status of the PM Cares Fund has been a subject of controversy since its creation earlier this year. Even though the PM is the ex-officio Chairman of the Trust, with ministers as trustees, the fund itself has been kept away from public scrutiny.
The government has also taken the stand that the fund itself is not subject to RTI, and would not be audited by the CAG but by private auditors as a charitable trust.
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