RANCHI: It has reported that Jharkhand government on Monday proposed private and public sector companies to pool half of their annual corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget to the state CSR council for targeted expenditures.
Chairing over a meeting of the governing body of state CSR council at Project Building, chief minister Raghubar Das pitched the idea of companies contributing 50% of their CSR budget in the areas of hygiene, sanitation and health services. Companies are mandated to spend 2% of its annual profit to CSR activities under the Companies Act of 2013, effective from 2014. The CM also proposed the companies to pool in their un-spent money from CSR fund from the 2014-15 fiscal for the state’s use.
“Our priority is to make villages open defecation free. For this, we will intend to spend Rs 30 lakh. The money will be credited directly to the beneficiaries,” Das said at the meeting. Das also proposed to create a cell for monitoring the expenditure of the money pooled by companies and create a website to disseminate information on public domain. UNICEF will be appointed as the third party monitoring agency.
Founded in 2015, the state CSR council’s secondary thrust areas include providing pure drinking water to left-wing extremism affected villages. Das said the council’s aim is to work in health sector and especially eradicating malnourishment among women and children. The CSR money is likely to be used for hiring ‘Kuposhan Sakhis’ on contracts and around 5000 assistant police from among the youth of the state.
The state had also proposed to create a fund for pooling the money during the formation of the council in 2015 and had an estimated Rs 400 crore at its disposal.
(Times of India)
