Organisations deny receiving funds as centre bans 427 Odisha NGOs

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jun 12, 2015 at 9:01 PM

Bhubaneswar, June 12:

Even though the union home ministry has cancelled the registration of 627 NGOs from Odisha for non-compliance with FCRA, certain blacklisted organisations said there were errors in the list as they are in no way authorised by their parent state authority to receive such contributions.

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A notification of the ministry said that these non-government organisations have not filed their returns from the financial years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.

Thus, the NGOs have been banned of receiving foreign grants for non-compliance with the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010.

The ministry’s FCRA website has put up all the names of the NGOs barred from receiving foreign funds.

Registration of some government organisations including Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC), Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT), Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) have been cancelled.

They, however, refuted receiving any foreign funds.

“We receive only budgetary allocation by the state government. The funding comes from only government. We have no idea how the name figured in the list,” Mona Sharma, managing director of OSDMA and state revenue secretary, told IANS.

OUAT vice-chancellor Manoranjan Kar said: “No foreign fund is coming to the educational institute. We, however, receive foreign funds only from our collaborators like Japan and China for research works by faculty members and students.”

Some NGOs also pleaded their ignorance as to how their names were figured in the list while they have filed their returns in time.

“We have filed our financial returns in time… There might be confusion arising out of overlapping of names and registrations by certain NGOs,” said a senior official of Action Aid India, an NGO.

A total of 4,470 such NGOs have been barred across the country by the home ministry for not adhering to guidelines. The ministry scrutinised the records of 9,000 NGOs for the purpose. (IANS)