Govt says Rs 7,690-cr Covid-19-related initiatives in pipeline, Health News, ET HealthWorld

After former Congress president Rahul Gandhi educated his weapons on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the unspent PM Cares funds, the Center on Thursday clarified that a number of initiatives had been authorized which might be funded via PM Cares.

The newest audited report has proven PM Cares, an emergency fund, collected ‘10,990 crore in monetary yr 2020-21, of which one-third or about Rs 3,976 crore was spent.

Gandhi had tweeted with the caption “PM lies” on Tuesday saying, “PM CARES collected Rs 10,990 crore till March 2021 spent Rs 3,976 crore.” Refuting the report on the PM Cares fund, authorities sources clarified that until date Rs 7,690 crore have been authorized for varied initiatives associated to Covid-19 reduction.

According to authorities sources, you will need to keep ample steadiness within the PM CARES fund to fulfill future emergencies. A authorities supply advised ET that funds from PM-CARES have been utilized for India’s struggle towards Covid-19. “All the funds have been fully utilized. This has resulted in vital interventions like setting up more than 1,200 PSA plants for oxygen generation across all districts of the country,” mentioned the federal government supply.

The authorities had determined to arrange one oxygen technology plant per district following the scarcity of medical oxygen in the course of the second Covid-19 wave.

Government sources mentioned funds from PM-CARES have been used to provide one lakh oxygen concentrators to state well being amenities. “About 50,000 ventilators have been procured with PM-CARES funds for supply to states. Other interventions using PM-CARES funds include purchase of 6.6 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses and setting up of more than 3,500 beds in various states for use during Covid, ” the supply mentioned.

PM Cares fund has been within the eye of a political controversy as the federal government has refused to carry it beneath the Right to Information (RTI) Act, India’s transparency laws. Responding to petitions in courts, the federal government has maintained that PM-CARES may neither be introduced beneath the RTI Act as a “public authority” nor be listed as a “state”.