New Delhi: In view of the urgent need to fight COVID 19 pandemic, the employees at the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and its PSUs and autonomous bodies, like IFFCO, have contributed a day's salary, amounting to Rs 47 lakh, to PM CARES (Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) fund on Tuesday.
This comes a day after Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda urged all profit-making PSUs under the ministry to donate part of their CSR funds to PM CARES fund.
In addition to a day's salary, state-run NFL (National Fertilizers Limited) contributed Rs 63.94 lakh from its CSR corpus to PM CARES fund. The news was shared by Gowda on Twitter: I am delighted to announce that @NFL_Kisan – a PSU under my Ministry has contributed ₹63.94 Lakh under #CSR towards #PMCaresFunds Thanks to CMD, NFL @manojmishra_100 for honouring my request to support the efforts of Govt to fight #COVID19."
IFFCO too contributed Rs 25 crore to PM CARES fund as part of its CSR spending. Reacting to the news, Gowda said on Twitter, "I would like to thank @IFFCO_PR to support India's war against #COVID19 by contributing Rs 25 crores to the PM Cares Fund. This will go long way in helping government to combat #CornonaVirus and mitigate the impact of the outbreak."
In a letter sent to the CMDs of all PSUs, Gowda had said that the government is taking all possible steps to prevent the spreading of the COVID 19 outbreak. "However, a public health situation of this scale requires concerted efforts from all sections of society, therefore, I request you all to contribute the maximum possible amount of your CSR budget to PM CARES fund."
He had said that the government has set up the PM CARES fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation such as that posed by COVID-19 pandemic and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has already clarified that any contribution made to the said fund shall qualify as CSR expenditure under the Companies Act 2013.
The news comes a day after IndianOil, ONGC employees contributed two days' salary to the PM CARES fund , while MOIL Limited and BEML staff pledged a day's salary for the cause.