Amid battling the horrific second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing financial distress, hundreds of people have been extending their donations to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund (CMPRF) to aid the government in its battle against the pandemic. The public fund has been pouring with contributions since the appeal for donation made by Chief Minister MK Stalin. 

On May 11, four days after assuming the office of the Chief Minister, MK Stalin has appealed to the Tamil people living across and beyond the state to contribute to the relief fund to help the government in enhancing the medical infrastructure to treat the COVID-19 patients. The Chief Minister further asserted that transparency will be observed in the utilization of the fund and the donations will be rooted only for the Covid-related treatment. 

The Chief Minister has said that the people can avail tax exemption for the donations made to the relief fund. The fund has been receiving crores and crores of money as donations and on Tuesday, the government has revealed how much the relief fund has been received and the revelation has come a week after Stalin's appeal. According to reports, the CMPRF has received Rs 69 crore as donations as of Monday. 

Of Rs 69 crore, Rs 39.56 crore was handed over directly to the Chief Minister and cabinet ministers while the rest of Rs 29.44 crore has been made through online transactions. The reports say that the Tamil diaspora, Tamil people living overseas, had significantly contributed to the relief fund. On Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu government has allocated Rs 50 crore from the CMPRF to procure life-saving drugs to treat COVID-19 patients and get liquid oxygen from other states. 

The allocation has been made from the donation to the relief fund. While Rs 25 crore was utilized to procure Remdesivir drug and other lifesaving drugs used for the treatment of the Corona hit patients, Rs 25 crore was released to procure containers for transporting liquid medical oxygen from other states. Several Kollywood celebrities including Rajinikanth, Ajith, Suriya, Karthi, Vikram, Sivakarthikeyan, and dozens of businessmen had donated to the public relief fund. Several political parties including ADMK and PMK had donated to the relief fund. 

On Monday, Tamil Nadu has reported 33,075 fresh cases, 20,486 discharges, and 335 deaths. Overall, the state has recorded 16,31,291 COVID-19 cases so far as of Monday of which 2,31,596 are active cases, 13,81,690 have been discharged, and 18,005 had succumbed to the viral infection.