Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday that 6,677 NGOs’ FCRA registrations were cancelled between 2017 and 2021.
These NGOs violated the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act of 2010, according to Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai.
After their registration is cancelled, these NGOs won’t be able to register or get prior permission for three years.
Tamil Nadu cancelled 755 NGOs’ FCRA registration, followed by Maharashtra for 734, Uttar Pradesh for 635, Andhra Pradesh for 622 and West Bengal for 611. He said the FCRA license of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) was revoked under section 14 and for violation of section 12(4)(a)(vi).
The FCRA license was cancelled under section 14 (not being engaged in any reasonable activity in its chosen field for the benefit of the society for two consecutive years or has become defunct) for violation of provisions under section 11 (no person having a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme shall accept foreign contribution unless such person obtains a certificate of registration from the central government) and section 12(4)(a)(vi) (not to use foreign contribution for personal gains and divert it for undesirable purposes).
The license of the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) has been revoked under section 14 of the FCRA for violating section 8(1)(a) of the FCRA (foreign contributions should be used only for the purposes intended) and section 11 of the FCRA (foreign donations should be used only for the purposes intended).
The RGCT has also violated the FCRA’s section 17 (the primary FCRA account must be opened exclusively in a branch of the State Bank of India in New Delhi), section 18 (informing the government of each foreign contribution received by it, the source of the fund, and the purposes for which it is used, section 19 (maintenance of accounts) and section 12(4)(a)(vi) (not using foreign contributions for personal gain and diverting them for undesirable purposes), he said.
