Political funding kept out of CSR ambit | Business Line
Political funding kept out of CSR ambit | Business Line
Online comments posted on February 28, 2014:
Online comments posted on February 28, 2014:
Any initiative to bring
transparency in spending from CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) funds and to
curb use of black money for fighting elections should be welcomed. Even the
long list of ‘eligible’ activities that can be funded with CSR allocations has
not satisfied the corporates which crave for more flexibility in this regard.
In the matter of social
responsibility and avoidance of unethical practices in election expenditure,
there are bound to be constraints for any regulatory approach to succeed. The
final ‘judge’ will be the society and the Aam
Aadmi who exercises his right to vote. The media and the educated
population should play their role in creating awareness about the spirit of
guidelines among the masses, who, in turn, should press for self-regulation by
corporates and politicians.
Incidentally, it would be
desirable to keep donations like the ones to Prime Minister’s National Relief
Fund outside CSR, so that such funds could be directly deployed for the benefit
of geographical areas from which the corporates operate.
M G Warrier, Thiruvananthapuram
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