The basis of the idea leading to the creation of Non Government Organization was born from the urge in the world community to make democracy widespread so as to reach all sections and levels of society. Experience of development in democratic countries was that though democracy was a comprehensive machine catering to the needs of the society, yet in practical life many important social, political and economic matters willy-nilly remained outside the ambit of civil administration. It was thus found that an institution should be created which would take care of the left out areas and thus help the state in catering to the needs of society in such areas. This institution was given the name of NGOs. With that, civil society came into motion and NGOs began to be formed by people interested in building bridges between the Government and sections of society that remained neglected or sidelined in the process of development. Over the years hundreds and thousands of NGOs were formed.
In our country there is a system that has to be followed while NGOs are formed and got registered with the Registrar of Charitable Societies. All national and international NGOs have to get themselves duly registered. This also means that they have to fulfill all the conditions laid down by the Government and produce all necessary documents to prove their credibility. One of the important conditions is that the registered NGOs have to fill annual returns of income and expenditure. It is obligatory on NGOs that have obtained Foreign Contributions Regulation Act licenses. Failure to submit these returns makes them liable to cancellation of their registration. The Home Ministry has found that a large number of NGOs have not complied with this formality and have failed to submit their annual returns. Many well known social and religious NGOs fall in that net. Not caring to take note of repeated notices of the MHA, licenses of at least 36 NGOs several prominent organizations in the State have been cancelled by the Home Ministry. It will be reminded that in some cases foreign remittances have been received by some of the NGOs which have not submitted the returns. Violation of this mandatory rule is unjustifiable particularly when several notices were served.
All that we can say is that the MHA is justified in taking proper action under rules in this case. But many of these NGOs are doing good work and it is the responsibility of the Government to ensure that the good accruing to the public from these positive NGOs is not denied. It is true that some of the NGOs have skeletons in their cupboard but clear distinction has to be made between those rendering genuine humanitarian service and those that are suspect in the eyes of law. The MHA could perhaps constitute a committee to examine the reasons why these NGOs failed to submit returns. If some genuine reason is there, then the Government may consider one time concession and give them one more chance of submitted the mandated returns.
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