NGOs use funds for fuelling protests: IB report to PMO

The protests are against projects relating to coal, bauxite mining, oil exploration, nuclear plants and linking of rivers, the report stated

An Intelligence Bureau report to the Prime Minister's Office and other departments has noted that funding of several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) is "cleverly disguised" as donations for issues like human rights and instead used for funding protests to stall developmental projects.

These funds were mostly used to fuel protests against developmental projects relating to coal, bauxite mining, oil exploration, nuclear plants and linking of rivers, resulting in stalling or slowing down of these projects, the report said.

The report submitted to the PMO and other important ministries like Finance and Home also claims that laptop of one of the foreign activists of an NGO contained scanned map of India with 16 nuclear plants (existing and proposed) and five Uranium mine locations marked prominently.

It said that some organisations in Western countries have also developed "deniability" by pursuing "transit-funding models" where by European donors and also governments are asked to fund some NGOs in India.

"These include the Netherlands and Danish governments and multiple state funded donors based in these countries, apart from some Scandinavian NGOs, which normally focus on the environmental impact of development," the report, submitted also to National Security Adviser and Cabinet Secretariat, alleged.

It said that in the last few years, the country has been facing problems from these organisations which have stepped up efforts to encourage growth retarding campaigns in India, focused on extractive industries including anti-coal, anti-uranium and anti-bauxite mining, oil exploration, Genetically modified organisms and foods, climate change and anti-nuclear issues.