NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has blacklisted 17 NGOs across the country for violating guidelines under different schemes and committing irregularities. The NGOs that have been blacklisted are spread across eight states. Three of them are in Andhra Pradesh, Telegana and Madhya Pradesh; two of them are in Delhi and one each in Assam, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
This was recently disclosed by the Minister of State for Social Justice Vijay Sampla in the Rajya Sabha. Four of these NGOs were running old age homes, four were working for welfare of Other Backward Classes, five were working for empowerment of Scheduled Castes and three were working to provide assistance to disabled persons and was running a day care centre. A senior official in the ministry explained that blacklisted NGOs will not be liable to receive government funds from any central or state government organisation.
Besides blacklisting these 17 NGOs, the ministry has also stopped release of funds of three other NGOs—two of them being in Haryana, one in Odisha—as they were also found to be violating some government guidelines. The NGOs work as per the prescribed guidelines under the various schemes being implemented by the Ministry for social, economic and educational development of the SCs, OBCs, senior citizens, victims of drug abuse and persons with disabilities.
In a written reply to the parliament, Sampla said that the ministry ensures proper fund utilization by the NGOs by taking several steps such as conducting periodic inspections of NGOs. “Fresh/subsequent releases of grants are made only on receipt of utilization certificates in respect of previous year’s grants. The ministry also sponsors evaluation studies from time to time through independent evaluation agencies, inter alia, to check proper utilization of funds. Respective state governments / Union Territories also monitor the schemes/ programmes of the Ministry implemented through NGOs,” Sampla said.