New Delhi: For non-governmental organizations to obtain overseas funds, all their staff and officials must declare to the government that they have not been prosecuted or sentenced for religious conversions under fresh regulations set out by the home ministry. A government notification on Monday also announced changes to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules 2011, which include that individuals need not declare personal gifts worth up to Rs. 1 lakh anymore. Earlier, gifts valued at more than Rs. 25,000 had to be declared.

The notification makes it compulsory for an NGO's "office bearers and important officials and members" to certify that they were not "sued or sentenced" for "transformation" from one faith to another and for "communal tension and disharmony" to be created. Also, from now, not just the applicant but every member of the NGO must pledge that they have never been involved in "diverting" foreign funds or propagating "sedition" or "advocating violent means"