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Protect Yourself
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| All Charitable Organizations |
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Charity has become fashion of the day. It has
lost its lusture that was India, a symbol of genuine charity where charity was
done without any expectation of return whatsoever. Today, schools, colleges,
hospitals and a lot of other institutions are doing 'charity' with a charge of
fee!. In the name of charity empires are being built and persons at the helm of
affairs, apart from becoming powerful in society, have themselves become
millionaires. All for charity. The list of such charity is unending. The Right
to Information Act has given the citizen of the Country the power to open this
pandora box in teh name of 'Public Interest'. Tomorrow the charitable
institutions may be the most susceptible under the clutches of this Act. It is
possible that the public may lift the veil of charitable organizations and have
access to every detail about any activity of any charitable institution. So,
beware charitable institutions!.
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First, if you are a charitable organization
getting any financial support from any funds of the Government, either directly
or indirectly, you are most likely on a footing parallel to any Government
authority/organization under the Right to Information Act. You ought to declare
yourself a 'Public Authority' under the Act and appoint 'Public Information
Officer' to deal with public. You are then directly responsible to the citizen
for receiving applications and providing information about yourself. For
detailed understanding of this issue, visit our section "Private Business
Corner -- Financed by Government" from home page or
click here |
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Second, even if you are not availing any
financial support from Government, directly or indirectly, your information can
also be asked for by any citizen. As a charitable organization, your activities
are under control of some or the other organization of the Government under a
particular Law of teh Land. For instance, if you are running a charitable
hospital, the Ministry of Health, Central or State, can look into your affairs
at any time. For schools, education department is always there to watch. Any
citizen, through such Government organization can ask for information about you
and your activities.For detailed understanding of this issue, visit our section
"Private Business Corner -- All Business Houses" from home page or click
here |
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This scenario raises the question whether there
are any safeguards. Yes, there are. The Right to Information Act has provided
several situations and circumstances under which information asked for can be
denied. However, all these situations, to the extent relevant for charitable
organizations get supercede by "Public Interest". This means that in public
interest, any and every information asked for by any citizen will have to be
provided to the citizen. And, when the subject matter is charity or charitable
purpose, public interest is inherently present. The public at large must know
anything and everything about the activities of charitable organizations.
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| For any query or assistance,
contactInfoRightsIndia. |
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