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Parliament
Spotlight
New Delhi, 11 August
2018
‘Govt Against
Micromanagement of CSR’
New Delhi, 10 August
2018 (INFA): The Government doesn’t and wouldn’t like to “micromanage”
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, the Government made it amply
clear today. “CSR dil se ki jaate hai,
koi kanoon se nahin, (CSR is done through the heart and not through legal
requirement), is how Union Minister for Corporate Affairs Piyush Goyal chose to
simply put it across to Lok Sabha MPs. And this, he added is because
philanthropy is in ingrained in our basic culture, which we have inherited.
He was responding to
supplementaries during Question Hour on whether the Government has taken steps
or proposed to do so to ensure proper utilisation of CSR funds by various
public and private sector companies as per the rules. In accordance with the
law, profitable companies are expected to spend at least two per cent of their
three-year average net profit for CSR. And, it is for the companies and their Board
of directors to decide which activities to take up.
Therefore, there is
no interference of monitoring of projects by us, said Goyal and added in a
lighter vein that “if we ventured into it then there would be need for another
department and the government would be accused of bureaucratic red tapism!” At
best, the Ministry can monitor the annual reports of the companies whether at
least the two per cent has been utilised. If there is ‘irregularity’ then the Registrar
of Companies initiates action against such non-compliant companies, but only after
due examination of records. For financial year 2014-15, prosecution against 254
companies was sanctioned.
The Minister said
there was maximum focus on the North East and the Public sector Undertakings
were playing an important role. Among other States where there was a focus were
Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu and the Government could only “appeal”
to the companies to stress on “aspirational districts.” He urged members to use
their MPLAD judiciously and add to the kitty of the government projects
targeting 16,000 villages.
* * * * * *
Geriatric
Centres
With decline in
social values and the younger generation unwilling to look after their aged
parents, the government is going all out to shoulder its responsibility in
taking care of the old, said Minister of State for health Anupriya Patel. She
was replying to supplementaries on the health challenges being faced by the
elderly people. According to data 2.6 per cent of the population is elderly and
by 2050 the number will grow to 340 million.
The Government
already has 19 Geriatric Centres across the country and there is a target of
creating special facility clinics for the old in the 581 districts. As of now
250 of these are already operational. The Government also proposes to conduct a
systematic study on disease burden, the social network available, economic well
being of the elderly so as to have a preventive policy in place.
The government is
aware of the cost of hospitalisation increasing and has allotted 2 per cent of
the GDP for taking care of the elderly to ensure facilities are in place as
well available. The issue of ensuring clinics have technical and nursing staff
is also under its consideration. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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