Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das. Express photo Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das. Express photo

The state government has decided to constitute a corpus from the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds allocated by the private companies working in the state to boost development-related works. The funds would be managed by the State CSR Council.

In a meeting of the CSR Council headed by Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday, it was decided that the private companies would deposit one per cent of the CSR funds, which is half of the allocated two per cent, in a special corpus. The CM also asked the companies to deposit half of the unspent amount from the last financial year into the corpus.

According to a statement issued, the CM told the CSR Council – including representatives from several entities, “The government will spend this fund as per its necessity. The government-constituted Panchayat Secretariats and Unicef will be the third-party monitoring agencies for the implementation of the CSR funds. A website will also be launched that would provide the latest up-to-date information about the programmes being undertaken through the said fund and their latest position. The representatives of the companies could access this information to see it for themselves, as to how the funds are being spent.” The entire work will be done in a very transparent manner.

Das also told the CSR Council that the state had three main priorities – making the state open defecation free (ODF) in the next three years; to make potable drinking water available in Naxal-affected areas and making Jharkhand malnutrition free.

He urged the companies to focus their programmes in these areas, so that tangible targets are achieved. Discussing various issues related to CSR funds, the CM pointed out that the Chambers of Commerce required raising awareness among shopkeepers to segregate waste, besides other things. He also discussed the possibility of using the water in the mining area for drinking or other purposes by filtering and recycling it.

The first meeting of the governing body of the CSR Council was held in May 2015 with an approximate fund of around Rs 400 crores. At the time, the government had placed two priorities before the corporate – cleanliness and ‘skill India’ initiative.

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