Maharashtra CM's relief fund gets its act right

Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, March 22, 2014.

The chief minister's relief fund, which had been mired in controversies for the kind of beneficiaries it used to support, seems to have cleaned up its act.

Right to Information (RTI) activist Shailesh Gandhi, who had sought details on disbursals of over Rs 50,000 from the CM's relief fund, said that since 2012, money has been distributed only for medical relief-in 2012-13, nearly 41 people were given Rs 50,000 each for medical treatment in hospitals across the state and in 2013-14, 97 beneficiaries received Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 50,000from this fund.

This is a welcome change from 2008, when money was given out for other purposes, such as Rs 5 lakh to fund a cricket tournament, Rs 5 lakh for a strategic studies centre, Rs 25 lakh to set up a gymnasium at Raj Bhavan and a Rs 5-lakh gift to the Press Club in Delhi.

"After the RTI exposures, and in case of this CM [Prithviraj Chavan], one finds that no money has been given for anything it should have not gone into. In some cases, I was told that money was sent to the collectors to either fund medical emergencies or local disasters. The collectors would then disburse the amount to the needy," said Gandhi.

Registered in 1967 with the charity commissioner, the CM's relief fund is to be used only for those affected by natural disasters.

The RTI query by Gandhi seeking details on how the fund was spent had revealed that a large part of the over Rs 50 crore or thereabouts the CM's office received in donations between 2003 and 2005 (when Sushilkumar Shinde and then Vilasrao Deshmukh were at the helm) went to events conducted by institutions that were not related to calamities and disasters, such as the organizers of a kabaddi competition, a women's football match, a ghazal contest, a Marathi actor's fan club and a Congress MLA's religious congregation.

These Then, too, these details emerged after Gandhi had filed an RTI query plea under the RTI Act for details on how the fund was spent.

The query had revealed that a large part of the about Rs 50 crore or thereabouts which the CM's office received in donations between 2003 and 2005 (when first Sushilkumar Shinde and then Vilasrao Deshmukh were at the helm) went to events conducted by institutions that were in no way related to calamities and disasters.