PM Cares Fund must be spent on covid patients, audited by CAG: Singhvi

New Delhi: The Congress has again questioned the PM Cares Fund and demanded an independent audit from CAG. The party questioned why the fund is not being spent on the Covid-19 patients.

Party Senior spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “Our only worry with PM Cares Fund is that it’s not being spent on the victims of Covid-19 which use can be both direct and incidental.”

“We only demand an independent audit by CAG or any other credible independent agency and daily updates. Not too much to ask from a public fund,” added Singhvi.

According to pmindia.gov.in, the ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund)’ was set up “keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, a public charitable trust”.

The Congress has been alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “hostile to the requirement” and “decisions to be taken during the Covid-19 pandemic for the welfare of the people”.

The Congress further alleged that there are discrepancies in the PM-CARE fund as there is no transparency and “secrecy has always been the way of the wicked!”

“History will remember PM Modi as the Prime Minister who didn’t care about people’s lives,” the Congress tweeted on Monday.

The Congress also said that the Prime Minister is least concerned about PPE kits for health workers.

The party lashed out at the Prime Minister for the delay in providing a financial assistance package. The government hasn’t planned anything before the announcement of the lockdown, the party alleged.