Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has raised concerns regarding the PM CARES Fund, which has reportedly increased to ₹ 8,452 crore in 2024-25. He questioned why these funds are not being allocated to enhance basic facilities in rural government schools, highlighting a critical gap in educational support.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is its chairperson. The defence, home and finance ministers act as trustees. Because of a shortage of funds, dipke said authorities had told him that several schools lacked basic facilities.
“A report came out that there is almost ₹ 8,500 crore in the PM CARES Fund which is not being used anywhere. The corpus of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations ( PM CARES ) Fund rose 17.8% from ₹ 7,173.03 crore in 2023-24 to ₹ 8,452.07 crore in 2024-25, according to its audited statements released on Monday. “If one school costs ₹ 8 crore, then with ₹ 8,500 crore, more than 1,000 new high-tech model schools could have been built. The PM CARES Fund was set up on March 27, 2020, to respond to emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s not being used at all,” Dipke said in a video. Dipke said he had been visiting schools in villages over the past few days and found their condition “very bad”. He said children in several schools were struggling to access basic facilities, including drinking water. “So on one hand, it is being said that there are no funds for schools, and on the other hand, ₹ 8,500 crore is lying in the PM CARES Fund,” he said. But none of this is happening,” he said.
