Link ‘PayCM’ with CM Relief Fund, BJP MLC tells Bommai

In a letter to Bommai, Pranesh asked him to consider allowing citizens to make digital payments to the CMRF by leveraging the ‘PayCM’ moniker

Finding opportunity in adversity, BJP MLC M K Pranesh has asked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to link the ‘PayCM’ tag with the government’s relief fund.

In a letter to Bommai, Pranesh asked him to consider allowing citizens to make digital payments to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) by leveraging the ‘PayCM’ moniker.

Highlighting the benefits of digital technology, Pranesh wrote: “A digital payments app named ‘Pay CM’ Pay to Chief Minister’s Relief Fund may be developed through a company like Keonics. Doing so would enable citizens and organisations to make donations that can be used to aid needy households.”

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Pranesh, a former Legislative Council deputy chairperson, said bringing the CMRF into the digital payments space would help secure more donations.

“The CMRF, which is providing help to aggrieved families, has been receiving donations from IT/BT companies, CSR funds and philanthropists,” he pointed out, making a case for the ‘PayCM’ campaign to be linked to the CMRF.

Last week, the Congress launched the ‘PayCM’ campaign targeting Bommai over corruption allegations. The viral campaign that involved pasting posters with Bommai’s face on a QR code is based on the ‘40 per cent commission’ allegation made by the Karnataka State Contractors Association.

Bommai slammed the ‘PayCM’ campaign, calling it an attempt to tarnish not just his image, but also Karnataka’s.