Foreign fund curbs on 4,470 NGOs; Organizations say no notification

The home ministry has barred 4,470 NGOs from receiving foreign funds for not adhereing to the guidelines but many affected organisations across the country say they have not been formally informed about this.

After scrutinising the records of 9,000 NGOs, the home ministry has cancelled the licenses of 4,470 NGOs for non-compliance with the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

According to the FCRA of 2010, which sets the guidelines for foreign contributions received by NGOs, any such transfer has to be be reflected in the prescribed returns by the transferor and the recipient.

"These NGOs have violated the FCRA and have not been filing their returns. So, their licenses to receive foreign funds have been cancelled," a home ministry official said, adding that some of the organizations have not been filing their returns for over 10 years.

According to the notification put up on the home ministry's FCRA website, these 4,470 organizations have not filed their returns from the financial years 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

The Supreme Court Bar Association was one of the 400 organizations in Delhi whose licenses to receive foreign funds have been cancelled.

"We have been caught unawares on the issue. We haven't received any notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs so far," said Aishwarya Bhati, Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Similarly, 1,441 organizations from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have also been seized of their foreign fund licenses.

"We have received no formal information from the officials regarding this," said Nageshwar Rao, an official at Hyderabad's Osmania University.

As per the FCRA website, for West Bengal, during June 9-10, as many as 748 NGOs, art, culture, religious establishments and educational institutions figure on the aregistration cancelled' list.

Prominent among them are the Academy of Fine Arts, Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, the Meghan David Synagogue, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and St. Xavier's College.

However, some like the Academy of Fine Arts say they have not been formally informed about the issue.

"The cancellation of licence will not be a major setback because there was no foreign funding in the last ten years, Basab Ray, a member of the Academy's trust committee told IANS in Kolkata.

Among others similarly affected are Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Gujarat National Law University, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's Kabir NGO, All India Human Rights Association, Consumers' Forum- Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, Osmania University and University of Hyderabad.