JOIN USA week after cancelling Greenpeace India’s registration, the Centre on Thursday suspended the licence of Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Sabrang Trust to receive foreign donation citing 10 violations of rules.
The charges include transfer of foreign funds to organisations which do not have permission to receive it and diverting foreign funds for personal use like buying an international medical insurance of Rs 1,174 for Teesta’s activist-husband Javed Anand while on a visit to Pakistan and spending of Rs 4,227 for travel and books to attend a PUCL meeting.
The NGO, whose licence was suspended for 180 days, has been asked to explain why its registration should not be cancelled within 30 days.
The action against the NGO belonging to Teesta, who was in the forefront of the fight for victims of 2002 Gujarat riots, came as a culmination of a five-month-long investigation.
Earlier in July, another Teesta-led NGO ‘Centre for Justice and Peace’ was put on prior permission category for receiving foreign funds. A CBI probe is also ordered into the “misuse” of foreign funds received by organisations Sabrang Trust, Citizens for Justice and Peace and Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Ltd (SCPPL).
There has been a string of action against NGOs in the last one year after the NDA government came to power with Greenpeace India losing its registration and clearance of funds provided by Ford Foundation being put on prior permission category.
The order also said Sabrang Trust spend more than 50 per cent of foreign contribution it received in 2010-11 and 2011-12, which is another violation. It said in 2010-11, it spend 64.23 per cent of Rs 48.42 lakh it received as foreign funds while in the next fiscal, it spend 55.14 per cent of Rs 49.10 lakh.