\n
Conrad K Sangma and Prestone Tynsong met Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi, during which they raised the issue of the proposed amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), which has been under intense scrutiny, as many deem it an attempt to target churches that work on donations in the Northeast and other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
The FCRA regulates the acceptance and use of foreign contributions, and it applies to individuals, associations, and companies. The FCRA amendment bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 25 March and aims to enhance transparency in foreign funding. It also seeks to ensure proper utilisation of foreign contributions. The amendments are intended to prevent misuse of funds, as the concerns include threats to national security and national interests. However, in the process, churches have become the targets, though most of their work is charity-based.<\/p>\n
Many institutions run by churches in Meghalaya and the Northeast depend on foreign contributions, especially in remote and tribal areas, to run their health and education projects, but the state says that the funds are being misused, as they have not been used for their intended purpose. Activists and the Church see this as an attempt to curtail the rights of the Church.<\/p>\n
Many FCRA permits have been cancelled by the state, directly affecting churches and charitable organisations that rely heavily on foreign donations and funding.<\/p>\n
The meeting between the leaders from the region in Delhi was important in putting forward the fears and concerns of the churches and organisations, including those of the representatives of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, who also attended the meeting.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how the government will ease the worries of the charitable institutions in the state that are active in education, healthcare, and social services and are totally reliant on donations and funding. Either way, the bill is set to affect these organisations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Conrad K Sangma and Prestone Tynsong met Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi, during which they raised the issue of the proposed amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), which has been under intense scrutiny, as many deem it an attempt to target churches that work on donations in the Northeast and other parts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281087,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281081\/revisions\/281087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}