NGO’s are the saviours of this world.
They are the good guys, the one that people turn to when all else fails, and who help just to help.
NGO’s have their whole reputation based on being compassionate, and not being greedy or hungry for money, power and fame.
But with the recent reveal by Supreme Court, while hearing a petition concerning the funding of NGOs by foreign areas, found out that only about 2.99 lakh NGO’s out of the total humongous amount of 29.99 lakh NGO’s actually file their income tax returns.
That amounts to, pardon my mathematics I am not very good at it, but if I calculate it right, then it is even less than 10% of the total NGO’s that exist in India at the moment.
That is an alarming number of NGO’s that do not file any kind of information, about where they are getting funding from, how much funding and what exactly are they doing with that funding.
And on top of that, it has come out that a majority of this funding that NGO’s get are from foreign resources, which makes keeping any kind of check on it all, even more difficult.
Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur was quoted saying, “This is a major problem. They are getting money from all over the world. Mind-boggling…”
“What is an NGO? Anyone can register a society and it becomes an NGO… There is no legal brainwork done at the Central level to control them. Unless some mechanism is put in place centrally, nothing can be done,” he added.
And to a certain extent I do agree with him, in the fact that the process of registering as an NGO is extremely easy and frankly, not that expensive.
Also, if one is to question any kind of law that come out against the NGO’s or if the NGO’s themselves complain and say this is a harassment, then why not file the proper documents in the first place?
What exactly, are these NGO’s hiding, that they would not submit income tax returns and basic information, that is required of any running business or organization.
Signing off, I would just like to say that, on hand, I do think that NGO’s should remain a non-intrusive and safe place, where the common person can come in easily without fear. But on the other hand, I also believe that some changes need to be made to the way NGO’s are working and that they are not above the law.
In order to remain a safe place, the least that such organizations can do, is follow the protocol and show that they are not really doing any wrong.
Image Credits: Google Images
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2016/07/ngos-are-the-new-public-servants-theyll-soon-declare-assets/
http://edtimes.in/2016/09/im-deaf-and-dumb-my-house-was-burnt-i-have-a-gazetted-certificate-for-it-will-you-give-me-your-money/
