New Delhi. The home ministry has denied renewal of FCRA registration of 25 non-government organisations as they were allegedly found to be involved in anti-national activities. This is in addition to cancelling of FCRA licence of more than 11,000 organisations as they did not apply for renewal.
Even though names of these 25 NGOs was not immediately known, a senior government official said functioning of these 25 NGOs in the country are “contrary” to the provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA) and allegedly anti-national.
The Centre has already cancelled the registration of 11,319 organisations as these had not applied for renewal of registration under the FCRA by the June 30 deadline. These organisations will not be able to receive foreign funds now.
In addition, the has also closed the application for FCRA licence renewal in 1,736 cases as they could not submit proper documents for renewal of licence or had other statutory shortcoming within the stipulated time.
The ministry has now asked these 1,736 NGOs to submit their representations in support of deficiency in the application. A total of 16,491 applications were received by the home ministry for renewal of FCRA registration and out of which 14,730 were granted renewal.
Last year, the home ministry had cancelled FCRA registration of 10,000 NGOs because they did not file their annual returns for three years in a row. A number of these organisations were either defunct or did not want the FCRA registration in any case.
Following the home ministry’s move, now only 20,500 NGOs can receive foreign donations, which is less than half of what it was two years ago when 42,500 were registered under FCRA.
