The Prime Minister’s Office, on Wednesday, announced the allocation of the PM-CARES fund to combat the Coronavirus in the country. A total of Rs 3100 Crores will be diverted from the PM-CARES fund for this purpose.
The PM-CARES Fund
On March 27th, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund was set up to deal with “any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic”. While the trust is headed by the PM, the other members are the Defence Minister, Home Minister and the Finance Minister.
It has to be noted that there were several donations to the fund, and the government, till now, had not provided any update regarding its utilization.
Rs 3100 Crores allocated from the fund
The Prime Minister’s Office also announced the details on how this fund will be put to use. While Rs 2000 crore will be used for the purchase of ventilators, Rs 1000 crore would be used to take care of migrant laborers, and the remaining Rs 100 crore would be given to support vaccine development.
Rs 2000 crore will be spent on purchasing 50000 ‘Made In India’ ventilators, all of which would be given to the government-run hospitals treating the coronavirus patients.
Rs 1000 crore will be provided as a lump sum assistance to the State’s and the Union Territories in resolving the migrant workers’ issue. The funds would be released by each state’s Disaster Relief Commissioner, and will be used to provide accommodation facilities, make food arrangements, provide medical treatment and make transportation arrangements for the migrants.
The funds will be divided amongst each state taking into account the number of positive cases recorded by the state/UT so far (40% weightage), it’s population as the per 2011 Census (50% weightage) as well as “equal share for all states/UTs to ensure basic minimum sum for all states” (10% weightage).
The remaining Rs 100 crore will be utilized under the supervision of the Principal Scientific Advisor, in vaccine development for the deadly virus.
Source: Free Press Journal
