PMO says don't have records of PM Modi's donation to PM-CARES: RTI

News Network

February 6, 2021

New Delhi, Feb 6: The offices of the President and Vice President have provided the amount both donated to the controversial PM-CARES through the RTI Act but Prime Minister's Office has said that it has no information about Narendra Modi's contribution as it does not hold any such records.

Law student Aniket Gaurav had sought details of donations made by President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Modi separately.

In its reply on June 16 last year to the query raised six days earlier, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said the President has contributed his one month salary -- Rs five lakh -- towards PM-CARES fund.

On June 9 last year, the Vice President's Secretariat responded that Naidu contributed a month's salary -- Rs 4 lakh -- to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

"In addition to the above, he (Naidu) is contributing 30% of his monthly salary towards the PM-CARES Fund until the situation in the country becomes normal. So far, Rs 1.2 lakh per month has been contributed to this fund since April 2020," the Secretariat said its reply to the query filed on May 11, 2020.

Gaurav later filed an RTI with the Prime Minister's Office in August last year seeking information. An appeal was filed in October and he received the response from the PMO on January 29 this year.

It said, "information regarding donations made by the PM from his personal savings, inter-alia, is personal in nature and therefore not part of the records held by this Office."

There were reports earlier that Modi donated Rs 2.25 lakh from his own pocket as the "initial corpus" to the PM-CARES just after it was set up.

The Narendra Modi government has been stone-walling RTI queries on PM-CARES citing that it is a private entity not controlled by the government, raising questions from transparency activists and Opposition.

The Trust deed dated March 27, 2020 said that the PM-CARES was "not created by or under the Constitution of India or by any law made by the Parliament or by any state legislature". It also went on to say that the Trust is "neither intended to be or is in fact owned, controlled or substantially financed by any government or any instrumentality of the Government".

However, a latest RTI in December last year showed that the controversial fund has been provided the official gov.in domain on a request from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

It has also come to light that the letter from the PMO was sent on March 27 and the approval for use of the official domain reserved for a few government departments and agencies for the PM-CARES came on the same day.

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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