NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry has restored the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of the Missionaries of Charity, days after revoking it following some "adverse inputs".
A home ministry official said that with the restoration of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence, the Kolkata-based famed organisation will be able to receive foreign fundings and also can spend the money lying in the banks.
The Missionaries of Charity is a Catholic religious congregation established in 1950 by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa to help the poor and destitute, On December 27, the home ministry had said that it cancelled the FCRA licence of Missionaries of Charity after receiving some "adverse inputs".
It also said that it did not freeze any account of the Missionaries of Charity but the State Bank of India informed it that the NGO itself sent a request to the bank to freeze its accounts.
After the matter became public, the Opposition, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Congress, slammed the government for the alleged "freezing" of the bank accounts of the Missionaries of Charity.
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Following the home ministry action, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had directed to all District Collectors to ensure that no unit of the Missionaries of Charity, operating in the state, should face any financial crisis and if necessary use the chief minister's relief fund to help them.
Patnaik had also released over Rs 78 lakh to Missionary of Charity to run over a dozen institutes in the state.
In December, The Union Home Ministry had extended the validity of the FCRA registration of NGOs by three months till March 31.
The Centre, in public interest, has decided to extend the validity of the FCRA registration certificates of NGOs up to March 31, 2022 or till the date of disposal of their renewal applications, whichever is earlier, in respect of only those entities that fulfil certain criteria, the notice said.
The NGOs with FCRA registration certificates expiring between September 29, 2020 and March 31, 2022 and that have applied for renewal on the FCRA portal before the expiry of the certificates, in accordance with rule 12 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011, are eligible for the benefits.
"All FCRA registered associations are therefore advised to take note of the fact that in case of refusal of the application for renewal of certificate of registration, the validity of the certificate shall be deemed to have expired on the date of refusal of the application of renewal and the association shall not be eligible either to receive foreign contribution or utilise the foreign contribution received," the notice said.
The NGOs that have valid registration certificates under the FCRA are eligible to receive funding from abroad.
A total of 22,762 NGOs are registered under the FCRA and the renewal applications of about 6,500 have so far been processed.