Rahul questions PM CARES receiving funds from PSUs, asks where is people's money going

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that public sector firms contributed to the PM CARES Fund but no account has been given by the government and asked where the people's money was going.

In a Facebook post in Hindi, Gandhi alleged that the PM CARES Fund was money taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the public for whose expenditure no account is given by the government.

"Neither anyone knows how much misuse has been done, nor has there been any visible positive effect of it," he said.

In addition to the hard earned money of the people in this fund, thousands of crores of public sector units of the country have also gone into it, he alleged.

"This money also belongs to the public, it belongs to the taxpayers," the former Congress chief said.

"So far, Rs 2,900 crore has been put in PMCares by government companies, out of which Rs. 1,500 crore came from only the first five companies. ONGC -- Rs 370 crore, NTPC -- Rs 330 crores, PGCI -- Rs 275 crore, IOCL -- Rs 265 crore, Power Finance Commission -- Rs 222 crore," Gandhi claimed.

These companies have public invested money which was supposed to be used for the improvement of the country, the Congress leader said.

"But neither there is no estimation of the help provided through it, nor of development in anyone's life. Where is this money looted from the public going," Gandhi asked.

The Congress on Tuesday had alleged that the PM CARES Fund is shrouded in secrecy and demanded answers on why it has no transparency or accountability and is not subjected to any audit or RTI even though 60 per cent of its funds are received from public sector companies.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi had demanded more transparency and accountability in the Fund, which gets donations to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore, and said it should be submitted to Right to Information (RTI) and supported by legal sanctity.