Why in News ?

The bill amends the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, which regulates the use and acceptance of foreign contribution by individuals and organizations. The Parliament passed the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020.

What are the Amendments ?

• The amendments to the Bill, no public servant henceforth can receive foreign contributions.
  • Mandatory Aadhaar provision is included to all officials belonging to the recipient organisation.
• Foreign contributions are to be used by their original recipient and can’t be transferred to any other entity or person.
• Though foreign contributions can be spent for administrative purposes, their limit has been reduced to 20 per cent from the earlier 50 per cent.
• There won’t be an automatic renewal of permissions granted for receiving such funds
  • Authorities can now probe the functioning and purpose of the recipient organisation.
• The bill also proposes to enable the Centre to allow an NGO or association to surrender its FCRA certificate.

In favour of The Bill

• Necessary to curtail the attempt to convert someone to one’s own religious faith as some religious institutions were beneficiaries of the earlier FCRA regime.
• Opposition by NGOs to critical projects in sectors such as mining, power generation and infrastructure.
  • Misguided environmental concerns and agenda-based activism have put brakes.
  • Many such NGOs involved in these protest movements are recipients of foreign funding.
  • Kudankulam nuclear power and Sterlite Copper’s Thoothukudi plant cited as example.
• New provisions will arguably put the financial angle of these anti-development protests under greater scrutiny.
• The Bill is important from the national security perspective to tackle terrorism support etc.

Against the Bill

• Many NGOs at the forefront of helping marginalised communities and the amendment will affect the work.
• Harming the grass root projects in everything from education and health to gender justice and social empowerment.
• International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) the legislation fails to comply with India’s international legal obligations and constitutional provisions to respect and protect the rights to freedom of association, expression, and freedom of assembly.
  • The provisions of the Bill will impose “arbitrary and extraordinary obstacles” on the capacity of human rights groups.
  • Also affect the members of civil society to carry out their work.

Source : The Hindu

Topic

GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Current Affairs Compilation : 25 September 2020