Maharashtra govt staff urged to donate a day’s salary to CM relief fund
The Chief Minister’s relief fund aims at providing immediate relief to the people in distress, including natural calamities like flood, drought in Maharashtra as well as in the rest of the country.
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Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde with his deputy Devendra Fadnavis. (Express/File) The Maharashtra Government has appealed to around 15 lakh of its employees to donate a day’s salary to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, which is used to help people affected by natural calamities.
According to the government resolution dated June 9, 2023, the Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers’ Association had informed the state government on April 19, 2023 that they were willing to deposit one day’s salary to the CM Relief Fund. Based on that letter, the government has appealed to all officers and employees of the state government to donate one day’s remuneration from the salary of June 2023 to the fund.
The call for funds comes at a time when the state’s expenditure on publicity is increasing. In February 2023, the general administration department had issued a government resolution announcing Rs 143.61 crore on publicity campaigns till March 31, 2023. In the state budget presented by Fadnavis, the state information and broadcasting department got the highest hike in the budgeted amount — from Rs 280.14 crore (as per RE of 2022-’23) to Rs 613.45 crore in the budget of 2023-’24.
The officers and employees will have to give their consent for the deduction of one day’s remuneration but a few within the government have raised eyebrows on the timing of the order. “There is no natural calamity in the state at present. Also, no drastic situation has come up. The government employees have in the past donated one day’s remuneration to the cause, but nobody knows why it has been done now,” said a senior official.
The Chief Minister’s relief fund aims at providing immediate relief to the people in distress, including natural calamities like flood, drought in Maharashtra as well as in the rest of the country. It also provides financial assistance to the economically weaker citizens for the treatment of major diseases.
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