New Delhi: Members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the FCRA (Amendment) Bill have written to Chairman Sanjay Jaiswal requesting a postponement of the panel’s meeting scheduled for October 12.
In a letter dated September 29, the members, including Congress MP Anto Antony, urged that the meeting be deferred by at least four weeks, citing the importance and wide-ranging implications of the proposed Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Act (FCRAA).
The members said they require adequate time to study the Bill and related documents thoroughly before proceeding with its examination.
They also requested that the period for receiving public comments, suggestions, and representations from stakeholders be kept open for a minimum of four weeks to allow organisations, experts and the public to submit their views.
The letter stated that adequate time would enable members to properly consider the representations before deliberating on the Bill, and called for a more comprehensive and informed examination of the legislation.
A 31-member committee, headed by BJP MP Jaiswal, was constituted to examine the provisions of the FCRA legislation in detail before coming out with a report.
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill, 2006 provides, among other things, to consolidate the law to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality and prohibit the same for any activities detrimental to the national interests.
All organisations and NGOs receiving foreign funding have to mandatorily register under the FCRA Act, and their activities are closely monitored by the Ministry of Home Affairs acting as nodal authority.
The Amendment bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25 this year and referred to the JPC on August 12 following the demand of the opposition parties, who had raised objections over certain provisions of the legislation.
Opposition parties, which have raised strong objections to the FCRA Bill, alleged that it targets minorities as certain provisions will choke legitimate funding for Christian NGOs and minority-run social welfare and educational institutions.
However, the government has rejected the charges and maintained that the rules apply standard legal procedures for foreign funding transparency without targeting any specific community.
The government has maintained that the proposed legislation is not religion-specific and is aimed at regulating foreign contributions with the aim of enhancing transparency and ensuring proper utilisation of funds received from abroad.
The government has highlighted incidents of forced religious conversion as instances of misuse of foreign contributions.
(IANS)
