Government of India cancels licences of nearly 9,000 NGOs

[Nicky G]

Government of India cancels licences of nearly 9,000 NGOs

In a crackdown on dubious NGOs receiving foreign funds, government has cancelled licences of nearly 9,000 such entities for violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

In an order, the Home Ministry said that notices were issued to 10,343 NGOs for not filing annual returns for the year 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.

The notices were served on October 16, 2014 saying that the NGOs should file their annual returns within a month specifying amount of foreign funds received, sources of such funds, for which purpose it was received and in manner in which such foreign contribution was utilised, according to a Home Ministry notification.

Out of the 10,344 NGOs, only 229 replied.

There was no reply from the remaining NGOs leading to cancellation of their registration issued under FCRA, the notification issued yesterday said.

Among the registration cancelled 8,975 NGOs include 510 NGOs against whom notices were sent but returned undelivered.

Government earlier had suspended the FCRA licence issued to Greenpeace India and frozen their seven bank accounts for various alleged violation of laws.

The government last week ordered that funds coming from the US-based Ford Foundation should not be released by any bank to any Indian NGOs without mandatory permission from the Home Ministry.

– Inputs from PTI

 

[SitaramVillas]

The licenses cancelled includes Don Bosco Damra and Osmania University

 

[Sky lord]

Wow, this is going to cause a stink . What happens if the NGOs continue doing whatever they are doing ? Will they be fined ? There are some decent NGOs doing great work though, shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water.

 

[Nicky G]

Interesting read: NGOs and the media management

Media strategy probably is the most important wing of any NGO which is planning on carrying out a smear campaign against a country.

Apart from stage managing protests against developmental activities, the funds that pour in from the NGOs for media strategy is normally very high.

After Greenpeace, the Home Ministry of India placed under watch Ford Foundation which has made some very generous donations in India including a major one to the Sabrang Communication and Publishing Private Ltd. [Why was this Greenpeace activist "offloaded"?]

In fact it has been alleged that that the Ford Foundation had made two grants of 5.4 lakh dollars to Sabrang Trust and 2.9 lakh dollars to Sabrang Communication and Publishing Private Ltd respectively.

Under the scanner of the Home Ministry following a complaint from the Gujarat government is how these funds were used.

The probe by the Gujarat government had observed that the trust has used 80 per cent of its funds for office expenses and some objectives that are unclear.

For any NGO the media management was key. Several NGOs have used funds extensively for media conferences, the material attached to it. [Ford Foundation under watch, has a lot to answer]

The intention was to convey the propaganda through the media.

For instance NGOs that staged stage managed protests in areas were projects were being undertaken regularly had people to interact with the media through which they carried forward their propaganda.

The material passed on to several media houses included putting up false human interest stories and also defaming the government. In journalistic banter, this stories are termed as "plants."

There have also been several instances where NGOs have called many journalists and awarded them in gala functions.

All this was part of the propaganda that was used by the NGOs. Fancy parties, gifts, trips abroad, facilitation and expensive gifts are all part of the modus operandi which the NGOs used to get journalists onboard.

The lure of these luxuries attracted many journalists to write these NGO propagated stories and in the bargain boasted of winning awards for the same which ironically was given out by the same NGO. Everything under probe The Intelligence Bureau says that each and every aspect is under probe.

The modus operandi was a big one. Like journalists, several NGOs even roped in politicians and the police. Politicians and police officials were sent invites to speak at conventions and they went ahead without realizing that this was the bait.

It was important for NGOs to be in the good books of powerful and influential people. The general idea was to make it look that there was a voice of consent from powerful quarters for their propaganda. All these press clips, the speeches by politicians were part of a docket which these NGOs would prepare and circulate it.

Such clippings were even taken by the volunteers of these NGOs on their trips abroad. Over there these clippings and material would be presented before Parliamentary panels and also circulated among the business class so as to show India in very poor light.

 

[SitaramVillas]

This act is a follow-on on the cancellation of registrations of 1000 NGOs in AP. It won't change much on the ground though.

Cancellation of registrations of 1000+ NGOs in AP is a welcome move | IndiaFactsIndiaFacts
The Foreign Contribution (Regulatory) Act (FCRA) provides a mechanism for Organizations to receive foreign funds for various activities which are broadly classified into Educational, Religious, Economic, Social and so forth.

Although both Government and Non-Government Organizations can register themselves with the Ministry of Home Affairs so as to be eligible to receive foreign funds, the FCRA landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by NGOs. Among these, a huge chunk of NGOs receives FCRA funding for purely religious purposes. In our estimate, around 40 per cent of the funding each year is received by Organizations which declare themselves as Religious.

However, a very large number of NGOs which declare themselves as working on social causes may actually be receiving funds from foreign organizations which are motivated by a religious cause. As illustrative examples, one can see the following FC6 returns: 1, 2, 3, and 4.

This article examines a recent order by the FCRA Wing of Foreigners Division in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The order can be accessed here.

Out of the 42,000 Organizations which have been registered under FCRA, more than 10,000 had not filed the mandatory financial returns (called FC-6 form) for the years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, as on October 1, 2014. This is inexplicable given that the law mandates that the NGO file the return, even if it did not receive any foreign funds in a particular year.

Thus, the FCRA Wing issued notices to all these Organizations in the first week of October 2014 and asked them to provide reasons as to why their registrations should not be cancelled. The erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh (comprised currently of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) had the largest number of non-filing Organizations: 1441.

Following this, the FCRA Wing released a Cancellation order, dated 3 March, 2015 which mentions thatletters to 510 Organizations returned back to the sender: undelivered. Six hundred and thirty two Organizations presumably received the letter from MHA, but preferred not to reply within the stipulated time.

The MHA further states that two hundred and ninety nine organizations have replied and these are being studied further. The FCRA Wing issued Cancellation orders for the 1142 Organizations of Andhra Pradesh who were in clear violation of the Law, for the past several years.

Our observations:

• The cancellation order with details of all the cancelled Organizations of Andhra Pradesh was posted on the website of FCRA, likely on 13 March, 2015. This act of the Ministry to communicate directly with the citizens of India, without giving an (unjustified) preference to established information middle-men/women (so-called mainstream media)is singularly commendable. The news was carried by a few newspapers on their 14 March, 2015 editions. However, it was possible for social media to become aware of this development much earlier, thanks to MHA’s thoughtful action.
• This cancellation order pertains to NGOs in Andhra Pradesh alone. Thus, one can expect to see similar orders for NGOs in other States in the days to come.
• The following question may be pondered over: if an NGO did not file the FC-6 return for 2009-10 within the stipulated period (say, in the year 2010, ideally), why are we even discussing this matter in early 2015? Who in their right mind would have thought that the services of the non-compliant NGO were deemed to be necessary for the populace of India?
• The predominant nature of money coming via FCRA into our nation has been adequately demonstrated on IndiaFacts and on my blog. Thus, it requires no reiteration. Our analyses have been confined to those 21,000+ NGOs which have filed FC-6 returns each year. Much of the money coming in has been for Evangelical and anti-developmental purposes. It is a sobering thought that if such a long-term damage to our society can be caused by NGOs who diligently file annual returns, what to make of the work (dark matter) that the non-filing NGOs were involved in? A known Unknown, certainly, to paraphrase Don Rumsfeld.
• The Union Government, Ministers, Officers and others of the FCRA Wing need to be appreciated for their diligent work, sticking clearly to the rule book. They now have an unenviable task ahead to handle the’ Known Known’

 

[wolfschanzze]

The licenses cancelled includes Don Bosco Damra and Osmania University

Much more than that almost all Evangelist activity will come to a stop, more than 8000 of these NGO's are from AP.
@Darmashkian @itachiii