Govt goes back on renewal of NGOs’ FCRA licences

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 15, 2016 : With egg on its face after renewing the licence of NGOs whose permission to collect foreign funds were cancelled earlier, the government on Wednesday reversed its decision and disallowed Greenpeace and two Teesta Setalvad-led NGOs on receiving donations from abroad.

 

The government’s decision to renew the licences come two months after a similar episode when the licence of Zakir Naik-run NGO Islamic Research Foundation was renewed despite it being under ‘prior permission’ category.

The fresh order by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had clarified that the licence renewal of Greenpeace and others is “null and void”.

Following the “inadvertent” renewal of licences of Greenpeace, Sabrang Trust, and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) came to light, the Ministry of Home Affairs has now ordered an audit of recent renewal of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of over 13,000 NGOs to ensure that there is no further goof up.

The FCRA licences of Greenpeace and Sabrang were cancelled on several charges, including ‘working against the interests of the country’, while CJP was put on the ‘prior permission’ list, which means that it has to take prior permission from the government before receiving foreign donations.

The MHA is also roping in Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-IN) to ascertain whether there was a hacking of their website that led to the renewal of the licences. Official sources said the CERT-IN will probe if the “mistaken” online renewal of FCRA licenses was due to a hacking attack.

The MHA had in September last year cancelled the FCRA licence of Greenpeace citing nine reasons, which included transfer of foreign funds to undesignated accounts, mention of incorrect amounts of foreign contribution and funding legal costs in violation of FCRA rules.

While Sabrang Trust’s FCRA licence was cancelled by the Home Ministry in June this year, the CJP is being probed by the MHA on charges of misuse of grants to survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Teesta is the secretary of CJP and two other NGOs — Sabrang Trust and Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt Ltd. Both are under investigations by the CBI and the Gujarat police.

Courtesy:DHNS