E-Paper
‘Use PM Cares Fund for schools’: CJP's Abhijeet Dipke as report reveals corpus rose to over ₹8,400 crore
Abhijeet Dipke said a well-equipped model school could cost around ₹8 crore, meaning ₹8,500 crore could fund over 1,000 high-tech schools.
Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke has questioned why the ₹8,452 crore corpus of the PM CARES Fund is not being used to improve basic facilities in rural government schools, after a report showed that the fund’s corpus had risen significantly in 2024-25.
“A report came out that there is almost ₹8,500 crore in the PM CARES Fund which is not being used anywhere. It's not being used at all,” Dipke said in a video.
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.
ALSO READ | Abhijeet Dipke reacts to offer to join NDA camp: ‘Wasn't I anti-national for you a month ago?'
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.
“They are struggling to get drinking water in schools. So why are we not using this money for those children's schools? Why is this money not being used to build new schools?” he added.
Dipke said authorities had told him that several schools lacked basic facilities because of a shortage of funds.
“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.
The increase in the PM CARES Fund corpus came despite domestic donations falling by nearly 30% and foreign donations declining by more than 18% in 2024-25. The audited statements indicate that the rise was driven largely by interest income on fixed deposits and refunds from implementing agencies, while expenditure during the year was negligible.
Dipke estimated that a well-equipped model school could cost around ₹8 crore and that the corpus could theoretically fund more than 1,000 such schools.
“If one school costs ₹8 crore, then with ₹8,500 crore, more than 1,000 new high-tech model schools could have been built. But none of this is happening,” he said.
What is PM CARES Fund?
The PM CARES Fund was set up on March 27, 2020, to respond to emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is its chairperson. The defence, home and finance ministers act as trustees.
The fund relies on voluntary contributions and has supported emergency healthcare measures and the PM CARES for Children scheme.
Its latest audited statements were uploaded on its website on Monday and showed that the fund rose 17.8% from ₹7,173.03 crore in 2023-24 to ₹8,452.07 crore in 2024-25, despite a drop in domestic donations.
Dipke called for the fund to be used to address the shortage of basic facilities in schools. “So shouldn't this money be used for schools? So there should not be a shortage of funds,” he said.
ALSO READ | Abhijeet Dipke calls for government school admission of ministers' kids: 'No trust in own work?'
CJP, in its official account, asked why the money could not be used to build and repair schools. “Lack of funds was never the problem. Lack of intent is,” the CJP wrote.
Deep Dive
School infrastructure demands
Dipke's comments come amid demands for better facilities in government schools. The CJP launched the ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign on August 15 to highlight poor infrastructure in government schools across rural India.
The campaign calls for social audits of schools, focusing on basic facilities such as electricity, drinking water, toilets and mid-day meals. By August 18, the campaign had also moved towards rural school transportation.
ALSO READ | 'Look at PM CARES Fund too': CJP hits back after RTI activist questions Abhijeet Dipke's US education
PM CARES corpus rises despite fall in donations
Dipke's comments came after the audited financial statements of the PM CARES Fund showed that its corpus increased 17.8% from ₹7,173.03 crore in 2023-24 to ₹8,452.07 crore in 2024-25.
Domestic donations fell from ₹681.81 crore to ₹479.05 crore, while foreign donations dropped from ₹1.14 crore to ₹0.93 crore. The rise in the corpus was mainly due to interest from fixed deposits and refunds from agencies.
The fund earned ₹469.38 crore in interest and received ₹324.66 crore in refunds in 2024-25. By March 31, 2025, it had ₹605.41 crore in savings accounts and ₹7,846.65 crore in fixed deposits.
PM CARES expenditure falls 94%
The fund spent ₹87.85 lakh on the PM CARES for Children Scheme in 2024-25, down sharply from ₹15.38 crore in 2023-24.
This was a decline of about 94%. The ₹87.85 lakh expenditure was around 0.01% of the fund's ₹8,452.07 crore corpus.
