Govt seeks to update data on trusts

According to conservative estimates,the accounts of more than 34,000 of the total 1.69 lakh public charitable trusts have either not been prepared or submitted to the office of the Charity Commissioner during the last 10 years.

Again,roughly 35,000 trusts have failed to intimate the Charity Commissioner to inform about the changes in the management for over a decade.

These trusts have assets worth crores in their names but in the absence of trustees,who have either died or abandoned them,they are lying idle or face the prospect of falling into wrong hands,officials added.

Therefore,all district collectors have been asked to get a compilation of the public trust data from each taluka and village coming under their jurisdiction. This will enable the government to intervene in deserving cases.

Elsewhere,properties could be put to better use instead of remaining idle or misused or usurped by undesirable elements,they said.

Interestingly,while the government may get data of the trusts defaulting of submitting accounts or intimating changes in trust bodies,there is no provision in the Bombay Public Trusts Act to hand down any punishment to any one found responsible for the lapse.

Also,there is no provision in the Act for renewal of registration of trusts nor is there a provision to cancel registration of any such defaulting trusts,officials added.

Even if it is decided to register a court complaint against such lapses,the case drags on for years and the maximum penalty that can be imposed is Rs 1,000,irrespective of the size and extent of operations carried out by such trusts. Legally speaking,annual accounts of a trust are required to be submitted by March every year and latest by September,but barely 20 per cent of the trust bodies comply with this rule,they said.

Charity Commissioner H M Dholakia did not comment on the matter,saying it is a sensitive issue.

The 1.69 lakh trusts in Gujarat have been registered under six

categories from A to F.

Category A belongs to Hindu religious trusts numbering over 34,600. Category B is of the Muslim community-run

trusts numbering 420 followed by Category C of the 400 Parsi trusts. Category D consists of the 200 Christian community trusts. Category E belongs to the general trusts numbering around 80,000 followed by Category F of the registered societies that number around 55,000.