Kathmandu, January 21
Whereas the government is under fire for introducing controversial Information Technology Bill and the Bill on Special Service that could jeopardise people’s freedom of expression and right to privacy, yet another bill introduced by the government has also drawn a strong objection from a major stakeholder.
Jitram Lama, the president of NGO Federation of Nepal, says the government is trying to gradually close down all nongovernment organisations operating in the country by introducing the Bill on Organisations. The Ministry of Home Affairs has finalised the draft and forwarded it to the Cabinet for further processing.
In an interview with Onlinekhabar, Lama claims the bill would complicate the process of registration and renewal of NGOs and restrict them to a limited scope. “It requires a tax clearance certificate, a recommendation from the concerned local government and police report to register and renew an organisation. It takes months to prepare all of them,” he says, “Do you think members of the organisations like child club, youth club or farmers’ group would have any concern for a tax clearance certificate?”
“Such complicated procedures have been introduced with the intention of stopping them from registration.”
He says the government does not require a business firm to submit a police report for registration, asking why it would be a must for the NGOs. “There are other laws to control crime,” he says, “Everyone should be allowed to enjoy the freedom of association.”
Lama says the federation has concluded that the bill is against sentiments of the constitution and it disrespects the NGOs’ contribution to Nepal’s development, adding, “Indirectly, the government is telling us not to open any organisation and close down the existing ones.”
