The Union Home Ministry has issued notices to 643 NGOs, who are working in Odisha by receiving foreign funds, as these organisations have failed to submit their mandatory annual returns for three consecutive years, 2009 to 2012.
The Ministry advised the NGOs to submit justification immediately as to why their registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 should not be cancelled for non-filing of return within the stipulated time and for violating the Foreign Contribution Regulations Rules.
The Ministry’s notice came three months after a classified Intelligence Bureau (IB) report which had reportedly said that some NGOs were creating hurdles in economic development of the country by agitating against big infrastructure projects.
It had also directed the NGOs to give details of their income, expenditure, balance sheets among other documents clearly showing the source of foreign funds and the activities for which it has been put to use. It had categorically said that non-submission of mandatory annual return is violation of the FCRA 2010 and FCRR 2011. Notably, the Ministry has served notice to more than 10,000 NGOs functioning across the country to file annual returns of three years.