MHA warns of penal action against NGOs changing office bearers without approval

The Home Ministry has warned of taking penal action against NGOs which change office bearers without taking its approval, saying replacement of key functionaries of FCRA registered organisations without prior permission is a violation of law.

In a notification, the home ministry said incidents have come to light that some NGOs, having registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), have changed their office bearers without its approval and without updating this data on a real time basis through the online application meant for change of these details.

The ministry told the NGOs to submit applications for addition/ deletion/change of details about office bearers/ key functionaries by July 7, failing which penal action will be initiated against them.

"It may be noted that the online application for any service must be signed by the chief functionary of the association and the name of the chief functionary/ signatory must also be reflected in the list of office bearers/ key functionaries," the notification said.

Ever since the Narendra Modi-led government came to power in 2014, the central government has started scrutiny of the activities of NGOs leading to cancellation of their FCRA registration, which allows them to get foreign funding.

There were a total of 23,176 FCRA registered NGOs in 2016-17, which has now come down to around 12,000.