The government, however, may consider renewing the licences of 1736 NGOs if they send their complete documents
In a major overhaul exercise, the Centre has refused to renew FCRA licences of 25 NGOs besides putting renewal of licence of 1,736 other NGOs on hold because of incomplete records.
Not ready to reveal the names of the 25 NGOs whose have been refused licences, government official said, a majority of these were found to be indulged in “activities that are inimical to the national interest”.
DNA, however, confirmed from independent sources that most of the 25 NGOs whose licences have not been renewed are working in the field of human rights and community empowerment.
A few names include, Indian Action Social Forum-Insaf-India (Delhi), People’s Watch (Chennai), Compassion East India (Kolkata), Voluntary Health Association (Assam) and RCDRC (Raipur). Many of these are planning to go to the court.
Anil Chudhary of Insaf, that is already fighting a case against home ministry, said that the home ministry is taking decisions in an arbitrary manner by misusing the FCRA clauses.
“Clause 14 of the FCRA Act provides the ministry the powers to cancel any organisation's registration, but the ministry is misusing clause 16 which is for renewal to stop organisations from receiving foreign funds. Incidentally clause 14 has redressal mechanism but clause 16 does not have as it is related to renewal. We want the government to take the correct route and ban us under clause 14 if we have done anything wrong,” said Chaudhary.
The government, however, may consider renewing the licences of 1736 NGOs if they send their complete documents. The home ministry’s FCRA division has fixed November 8 as the last date of sending documents, sources added.
Contesting home ministry’s action, Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), representative of 500 NGOs across India, said as per the established law the government cannot punish NGOs without giving them opportunity of hearing.
“This is a unilateral decision of the government. Even as per the FCRA law they cannot close registration without giving NGOs proper hearing. As organisations, all we are asking for is hearing. Incidentally, nearly 90% NGOs whose renewal has been kept in abeyance were never informed which of their documents were missing,” said Harsh Jaitley of VANI.
In the process that completed on October 31 (date for final submission of documents for renewal of licences), the union home ministry has cancelled the FCRA licences of 11319 NGOs. Of the 16491 NGOs that applied for renewal, the ministry has renewed the licences of 14730 NGOs. Besides these, about 6000 NGOs are still eligible to receive foreign contribution as they licence renewal date has not come.
The major overhaul exercise has brought the number of active NGOs down from 33394 to nearly 21000, said an official.
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