The move started after the Master Plan 2021 was notified and an interim order to spare NGOs became ineffective. The master plan of Delhi does not have any room for NGOs and hence they had approached the Supreme Court last week.
However the court did not give an interim stay order on the drive and the hearing was posted for July.
The NGOs about 50 of them subsequently rushed to the ministry seeking relief as more closures are feared before the court has its next hearing.
NGO Jagori which is coordinating the NGO effort to save themselves said that the challenge now was to make norms as inclusive as possible while drawing validation from the standards laid down in the Master Plan.
Several parameters were mentioned in today's meeting of the NGOs with the minister as possible considerations in defining this boundary - total budget, total number of employees, area occupied and nature of activities.
"We need to look at these critically and assess the implications of using one or the other. By the end of the meeting, we should arrive at a broad
agreement on some acceptable norms. These can then be written up and circulated on this list for quick comments before submission to the Minister.'' Kalyani Menon Sen of Jagori said in a statement.
The NGOs are meeting this week to discuss and finalise the norms to be presented to the minister later.
The proposed norms for NGOs include expansion of the definition of professional activity to include NGOs in the list of permitted activities. It suggests that planning for NGOs follow those mentioned for informal trade. It also suggests making optimum use of government space to accommodate NGOs as they are often the implementing agencies for various government programmes.
The note to the ministry says that NGOs have been mentioned at different places in the Draft Master Plan 2021, whether as NGOs or charitable organisations on voluntary agencies or non-profit organisations.
It lists out these and says 'rain baseras' or night shelters could be run by voluntary agencies, health facilities are permitted to be run by charitable institutions , educational facilities, and other social welfare activities are entrusted to NGOs, it says.
MCD which is sealing the NGOs is providing financial and technical support for local composting projects implemented by NGOs at the neighbourhood level and thus there is an implicit acceptance of the role of NGOs (charitable institutions, voluntary agencies, community groups) in the Master Plan, particularly for providing services for and mobilising vulnerable communities.
