It has recently come to light that a number of individuals as well as organisations have been collecting aid in the name of helping people of drought-affected areas with no permission from the authorised department. According to the Section 41(C) of Bombay Public Trust Act,1950 (BPTA),Any person (not being a public trust) collecting any money,subscription,donation or other property for religious or charitable purpose needs to inform the Charity Commissioner in writing of such collection and the purpose for which such collection is being made. The section goes on to add that on receipt of such information,the Charity Commissioner may make inquiries and either permit the collection to continue or may order it to be stopped. Such permissions are sought and given before the festivals like Navrati,Ganesh festival,Shivratri by the various mandals. File inspection at the office of the Joint Charity Commissioner,Pune,has revealed that various initiatives to garner money and material help for the drought-affected areas lack the necessary permission. In fact,none of the initiatives launched to collect monetary and material help from the people have taken necessary permission from the office of the Joint Charity Commissioner. According to the file inspection,not a single organisation or individual had neither applied for continuing such subscription nor has the Joint Charity Commissioner allowed such activities to continue. Only five permissions have been granted for collecting such funds in the past three months,majority of which were related to various religious functions and festivals. Dilip Hande,president of the Bar Association of Public Trust,said,Without necessary permissions,collection of money and food grains is illegal. Organisers,conducting such drives,should take the necessary permissions. District collector Vikas Deshmukh on Tuesday announced that the collectorate is forming a drought assistance cell,where people wanting to help can donate in kind. This cell would be functional at the Employment Guarantee Cell of the collectorate. People desirous of helping would be guided so that their help is taken to the right places, he said. The email id of the cell is dcegspune@gmail.com
