Maharashtra State Charity Commissioner ShivKumar Dighe vide circular No. 533 dated 6th
March 2018 urges trustees of religious trusts with surplus or unspent funds to
help poor farmers of the state with funds to help their daughters get married.
In
this Marathi circular, the commissioner invokes Section 69 of the Maharashtra
Public Trusts (MPT) Act 1950 under which he has general superintendence over
the administration and carrying out the purposes of the MPT Act.
The charity commissioner also has
powers under the Act to issue directions for proper utilisation of funds.
Very
recently about 35,000 farmers had walked one hundred and eighty kilometres from
Nashik to Mumbai with demands for economic justice and create awareness about
their plight. Among other issues, reportedly many farmers have committed suicide as they have no money to get their daughters married. There are also instances of daughters committing suicide to save their parents from getting into a debt-trap,
Underutilised funds should indeed be used
for public good. But, what is 'public good' should be left to the discretion of
the trustees and the directions provided under the trust deed of every trust.
Mid-Day,
a popular tabloid, quotes Dighe: "Thousands
of such religious trusts under our umbrella would be asked to donate a portion
of their unused funds for public welfare. The money the public donates for God
that lies unused in the trusts' bank accounts, can be used for the marriages of
farmers' daughters. All the trustees have to follow the instructions."
Mr.
Dighe is a man of action and many admire him for his bold, new and much
required initiatives.
Deregistering defunct trusts
With
more than 800,000 religious and charitable trusts and societies registered in
just the state of Maharashtra, Mr. Gighe has undertaken the task of de-registering all
trusts and societies which have failed to file their audited annual financial
accounts.
Reportedly by now ten per cent or close to about 80,000 such organisations have been de-registered.
Read more about this in our earlier Blog
Post of 29th December 2017
Addressing disputes
Mr.
Dighe has also embarked on a mission to end disputes in trusts
registered under the Maharashtra Public Trust Act in a time-bound manner. As part
of the action plan he has directed all joint, deputy and assistant charity
commissioners across the state to prepare a list of trusts with disputes.
Mr.
Dighe is reported to have said: "I have asked them to call a meeting of
trustees of all such trusts, hear their grievances and draft an action plan to
resolve the disputes. If there is a need, I will not hesitate to step in to
resolve the disputes. Our aim is to end litigation among trustees."
Cracking the whip on hospitals
Mr.
Dighe is also best known for streamlining medical treatment for the poor in
leading charitable hospitals. When he found blatant violation of the rules at
Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai he imposed a penalty of INR 500,000 on the trustees
of the hospital trust for failure in discharging what was their duty and a
compliance under state law.
He later took on many other charitable hospitals in
order to ensure that as per the scheme drafted by the Bombay High Court, ten
per cent beds are reserved for poor patients. Although here again we have
instances of the good intent of law being misused by state politicians who arm-twist
the hospital administration to admit their otherwise well-off relatives, party or
constituency workers.
While concluding, we cannot but help reproducing this very apt quote:
While concluding, we cannot but help reproducing this very apt quote:
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