It’s war! The Indian Government and NGOs are fighting it out in the ring

The Government of India is closely monitoring Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and it cancelled registrations of as many as 10,117 NGOs for violating norms.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju stated that the ministry froze accounts of 34 associations, prohibited 69 associations from receiving foreign contribution and placed 16 foreign donor agencies including Ford Foundation under the Prior Permission category, while elucidating seven major kinds of violations by the NGOs.

The Government added that a fine was nearly Rs 52 lakh on 24 associations was imposed for receiving and using foreign contribution without any registration and prior permission.

Rijiju said that Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) wing of the Home Ministry had conducted 129 inspections on NGOs last year and 36 inspections this year.

"The violations noticed in the majority of cases were: clubbing foreign contribution account with domestic accounts i.e. failure to maintain exclusive accounts as required by FCRA, failure to submit annual accounts within the stipulated period, transfer of foreign contribution to unregistered NGOs, utilization of foreign contribution amount for the purposes different from the grant or different from the objectives of the recipient NGO, registration of assets from foreign contribution in the individual names of office bearers rather than in the name of NGO, utilization of more than 50% of foreign contribution received in a financial year on administrative expenses and change of more than 50% of the office bearers without prior approval," the Home Ministry has listed before the Parliament.

Regarding Teesta Setalvad case, Rijiju mentioned that Setalvad was associated with two NGOs -- Citizen for Justice and Peace and Sabrang Trust (both FCRA registered NGOs) -- and Sabrang Trust was funded by the Ford Foundation.

"There are inputs from security agencies that some amounts have been credited from Ford Foundation to some NGOs which are not registered under FCRA Act. Hence, to keep a watch on such recipients, the credits from Ford Foundation has been kept under prior permission category," Rijiju said.

The Gujarat government has sought probe in alleged misuse of Ford Foundation funds by Teesta.

(Image: Reuters)