Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge has expressed concerns regarding the spending practices and accountability of the PM CARES Fund. During a press conference on Thursday, he highlighted the financial statement for the year 2024-25, which followed an audit report. Kharge questioned why the emergency fund has accumulated thousands of crores while only a small fraction of its balance was utilized in the past year.
He said both the PM CARES Fund and the Ram Mandir Trust were announced under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oversight and receive donations. In an X post, Kharge raised questions over what he described as the lack of public accountability surrounding the fund. “PM does not CARE: Public authority without public accountability? “The Prime Minister is its Chairman. The Defence, Home and Finance Ministers are its Trustees.
He said this amounted to barely 0.01 per cent of the fund’s closing balance and questioned the rationale behind maintaining such a large corpus in a fund created to respond to emergencies. The Congress president also questioned how an emergency fund could continue accumulating thousands of crores when its expenditure during 2024-25 was a fraction of its closing balance.
He asked why a fund bearing the Prime Minister’s name remained outside what he called the “ordinary mechanisms of public scrutiny”. Kharge said in his post. It accepts CSR contributions and tax-deductible donations,” Kharge said.
Congress President Questions Prime Minister’s Management of Government Institutions
The Congress president has raised questions regarding the Prime Minister’s management of various government institutions and oversight of associated funds. This criticism is part of a broader attack on the Prime Minister’s governance style and accountability measures.
