IndiaCSR News Network
PUNE: MP Anil Shirole has written a Letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to allow use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for infrastructure devt in the city.
The CSR funds for urban infrastructure should be a permitted activity. This would help in developing quality infrastructure for the city. There are many major business and industrial units in Pune which would like to contribute to the city’s development. The companies using CSR funds for infrastructure must get all the benefits said Shirole.
He added that he hopes that the Centre will approve his request and that other cities will also benefit from the CSR funds for infrastructure development. Shiorle’s initiative comes against the backdrop of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) plan to involve city’s corporate sector in infrastructure development.
The civic body wants different companies to solve problems in basic infrastructure, municipal schools, solid waste management and sanitation. Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, requires a certain class of profitable corporates to spend at least 2% of their three-year annual average net profit towards CSR activities. However, as per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, the civic body is responsible for the infrastructure development.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has set up a cell to plan the use of CSR funds for executing the civic body’s plan. It has taken help from a social sciences institute and is tapping the CSR funds from private companies to use in civic projects. The PMC is planning to imitate Mumbai’s model. The civic education department already has an initiative, under which it has joined hands with non-governmental organisations to get financial and other help. The PMC school board has also set up a wing to coordinate with the CSR cells of IT and automobile industries to involve them in civic schools.
Deputy mayor Aba Bagul said that the PMC is going to communicate with the state and the central government to ensure that the corporate companies develop infrastructure projects on their own.
