Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Praful Patel has urged various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India to issue directions to the Central Public Sector Enterprises working under their administrative control to take up relief and rehabilitation activities in the disaster-affected areas of Uttarakhand under their Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability activities.
Accordingly, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), functioning under Patel’s Ministry, issued an Office Memorandum which stated that the relief and rehabilitation projects undertaken in Uttarakhand during 2013-14 by the CPSEs would be treated as projects in the backward region and would also qualify for the purpose of MoU evaluation.
Further, the limit of 5-10 per cent of annual budget for CSR and Sustainability activities earmarked for natural calamities/ disaster will be relaxed for this purpose - this means that the CPSEs can now spend more funds on this account.