The National Council of Churches in India, in its Executive Committee meeting in Chennai on August 13, 2016, has expressed serious reservations about the intention of the Government to introduce the Lokpal Act of 2013.
The Act designates directors of organisations receiving annually either Rs. One Crore or more from Government grants, or Rs. Ten Lakhs or more from foreign funding, as ‘Public Servants’. It therefore requires the directors to declare their assets and file annual returns giving particulars not only of themselves, but also of their spouses and dependent children.
The NCCI has the following serious concerns about this Act:
1. By designating directors of Church bodies and NGOs as public servants, the Government is extending its strictures to non-profit charitable ministries which is contrary to the original objectives of the Act that was primarily meant to hold Government servants to be accountable and responsible.
2. This Act could be used as a tool to interfere in the laudable services of religious bodies and organisations, particularly of minority communities. This would severely hamper the good work rendered in the service of the nation.
3. The compulsion and extent of declaring assets and filing returns is an invasion on the privacy of the persons serving as directors of noble religious bodies and organisations.
-NCCI NEWS
