President gives assent to two bills from Tamil Nadu, Himachal

President Ram Nath Kovind has given assent to two bills, including one from Tamil Nadu which aims to create a board to maintain and administer public charitable trusts and endowments created by Vanniyar community members, officials said.

The Himachal Pradesh Early Childhood Care and Education Centers (Registration and Regulation) Bill 2017 aims to ensure quality education to children by providing all basic facilities.

The Tamil Nadu Vanniyakula Kshatriya Public Charitable Trusts and Endowments (Protection and Maintenance) Bill 2018 also aims to prevent misuse, misappropriation of properties and income by people for causes other than those for which these endowments were created, a Home Ministry official said.

The president has given assent to the two state bills, the official said.

The Tamil Nadu legislation will apply to all charitable trusts and endowments created and administered by persons or organisations of the Vanniyakula Kshatriya community.

Many members of the community donated their properties for charitable purposes through trusts and endowments and such properties, in most cases, were neither utilised, nor maintained.

Following representations from the community, the state government has decided to constitute a separate board to save the properties and administer them without any hindrance, the official said.

The Himachal Pradesh legislation will bring the early childhood care and education centres in the state under government monitoring.

Such childcare centres are controlled by trusts, societies, religious groups or international funding agencies and these channels suffer from issues of equitable access, uneven quality and growing commercialisation.