DU, JNU among 4,000 bodies barred from foreign funding
Bharti Jain@ timesgroup com
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New Delhi:
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Crackdown Follows FCRA Violations
In a fresh crackdown on non-profit organizations for alleged violation of provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010, the Union home ministry has cancelled the FCRA registration of over 4,000 organizations over the last couple of months.Of these, the licence of 971 organizations to receive foreign contributions under FCRA was cancelled on Tuesday . Among the prominent non-profit bodies stripped of their registration since May are the Supreme Court Bar Association, University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Law Institute, Panjab University , Gujarat National Law University , School of Planning and Architecture, Escorts Heart Institute, Vikram Sarabhai Foundation and Kabir founded by Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. This means that they can no longer receive contributions from foreign donors.
Sources in the Union home ministry said the cancellation of FCRA registration of the errant NGOs was ordered after giving them due notice and following the laid down procedures. The grounds for cancellation of licences included non-filing of annual returns and other anomalies.
As many as 3,035 NGOs based in Delhi, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Manipur, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have lost their registration over the first nine days of this month alone. Similarly , nearly 1,100 NGOs were stripped of their FCRA licence in May . In an earlier crackdown, licences of nearly 8,975 NGOs were cancelled in April last for their failure to file annual returns for three years in a row. A series of actions by the Modi government against foreign-funded organizations and their donors has had the NGO community up in arms, which had accused the regime of trying to stifle the voice of dissent. This charge has been denied by the government, which insists that all actions were taken in line with FCRA provisions.
While the FCRA registration of Greenpeace was suspended and its bank accounts frozen in April, as many as 16 foreign donors, including Ford Foundation and Greenpeace International, have been put on prior permission list since last year. The action against Greenpeace also included offloading of its staffer Priya Pillai from a London-bound flight in January . The Delhi high court had slammed the action and ordered removal of “offloaded“ stamp from her passport.
Sources in the Union home ministry said the cancellation of FCRA registration of the errant NGOs was ordered after giving them due notice and following the laid down procedures. The grounds for cancellation of licences included non-filing of annual returns and other anomalies.
As many as 3,035 NGOs based in Delhi, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Manipur, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have lost their registration over the first nine days of this month alone. Similarly , nearly 1,100 NGOs were stripped of their FCRA licence in May . In an earlier crackdown, licences of nearly 8,975 NGOs were cancelled in April last for their failure to file annual returns for three years in a row. A series of actions by the Modi government against foreign-funded organizations and their donors has had the NGO community up in arms, which had accused the regime of trying to stifle the voice of dissent. This charge has been denied by the government, which insists that all actions were taken in line with FCRA provisions.
While the FCRA registration of Greenpeace was suspended and its bank accounts frozen in April, as many as 16 foreign donors, including Ford Foundation and Greenpeace International, have been put on prior permission list since last year. The action against Greenpeace also included offloading of its staffer Priya Pillai from a London-bound flight in January . The Delhi high court had slammed the action and ordered removal of “offloaded“ stamp from her passport.
