The Congress leadership is deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court order on PM CARES Fund.
Former finance minister P. Chidambaram tweeted: “The Supreme Court has delivered a judgement on the legality and legal accountability of PMCares Fund. The judgement is final but will be contested for a long time in academic circles. There are other aspects of PMCares Fund on which the Supreme Court had no occasion to pronounce judgement. These are transparency, disclosure and management practices concerning the Fund.”
He continued: “Who are the donors who gave Rs 3076 crore in the first five days in March 2020? Do they include Chinese firms? What is the amount received since April 1, 2020 and who are the donors? ….What is the procedure to allocate money from the Fund to various Covid-19 mitigating activities? Who are the recipients of money from the Fund since its inception? Are utilisation certificates demanded and received from the recipients? If the Fund is beyond the ambit of RTI, who will answer these vital questions?”
Party’s communications chief Randeep Surjewala said, “The SC Judgement is a body blow to transparency & accountability of the Government to people. It marks a sad letter day for responsibility & answerability of rulers to the electorate and remind them that they are not ‘Monarchs’ but ‘servants of the people’ The Supreme Court scrupulously believed that ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’. Today, the court, in a departure from that tradition, passed up an opportunity to demand answers on the PMCares Fund that seeks public money but plays by its own opaque and murky rules”