The Central Government has refused the renewal of licenses of 25 NGOs and has put the hold on the renewal of license of other 1,736 NGOs, which would be renewed only if they complete all the documentation procedures.

Although government has not disclosed the names of the NGO, according to the reports published in a leading newspaper, among the 25 NGOs, whose license has not been renewed are working in the field of human rights and community empowerment. According to the government officials, the major number of NGOs among the list were also found to be indulged in activities that are inimical to the national interest.

According to the report, few names, which include in the list are, Indian Action Social Forum Insaf-India (Delhi), People's Watch (Chennai), Compassion East India (Kolkata), Voluntary Health Association (Assam) and RCDRC (Raipur). Report also added that many of these organizations are already planning to approach the court against government's decision.

Insaf India's Anil Chaudhary, who is already fighting a case against home ministry, asserted the the home ministry is taking decision in an arbitrary manner by misusing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) clauses.

Chaudhary said, “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.”

However, the government has clarified that it has put the hold on the license renewal of other 1,736 NGOs. Their license would be renewed only if they send the complete required documents. According to the report, the government has fixed November 8 as the deadline for sending the documents.

According to the statistics, until October 31, which was a deadline for documents renewal for licenses, the Union Home Ministry's FCRA division has cancelled the FCRA license of 11,319 NGOs. Among 16,491 NGOs who applied for the renewal of their licenses, the government has renewed the license of 14,730 NGOs. Still 6,000 NGOs are eligible for receiving funds from the foreign countries as their license has not expired currently.

According to the officials, under this major overhaul exercise, the number of NGOs in the country has come down from 33,394 to nearly 21,000.

By Prajakt K.