NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry on Monday clarified that the government has not frozen the bank accounts of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity (MoC) and the State Bank of India has informed that MoC has sent a request to freeze its accounts.
The Ministry also said that the renewal application under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for the renewal of FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was refused on December 25, 2021 for not meeting the eligibility conditions under FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR) 2011.
It also said that no request or revision application has been received from MoC to review this refusal of renewal.
The MHA clarification came after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday tweeted that the central government froze all bank accounts of the MoC on Christmas and over 22,000 patients and employees have been left without food and medicine.
"While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised", she further said in her tweet message. The officials in the Home Ministry further said that Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was registered under FCRA vide Registration No 147120001 and its registration was valid up to Oct 31, 2021 only. The validity was subsequently extended up to December 31, 2021 along with other FCRA Associations whose renewal application was pending, they added.
However, while reviewing the MoC's renewal application, some adverse inputs were noticed. In consideration of these inputs on record, the renewal application of MoC was not approved, the officials further said, adding that the FCRA registration of MoC is valid up to December 31, 2021 and it did not freeze any accounts of MoC, rather the State Bank of India has informed that MoC itself sent a request to freeze its accounts, the Ministry added further.
Though the Missionaries of Charity was not ready to say anything, sources privy to the development said that there were some complaints against the organisation and the central government was keeping an eye on some of its bank accounts.