KOLKATA: Of the 4,470 NGOs barred by the central government from receiving foreign funds for not adhering to guidelines, as many as 679 are from West Bengal.
After scrutinising the records of 9,000 NGOs, the home ministry has cancelled the licences of 4,470 NGOs for non-compliance with the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
According to the FCRA of 2010, which sets the guidelines for foreign contributions received by NGOs, any such transfer has to be reflected in the prescribed returns by the transferer and the recipient.
As per the FCRA website, as many as 679 NGOs - art, culture, religious establishments and educational institutes - in Bengal figure on the "registration cancelled" list.
Prominent among them are the Academy of Fine Arts, Indian Institute of Technology -Kharagpur, the Meghan David Synagogue, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and St. Xavier's College.
However, some of them, including the Academy of Fine Arts, said they have not been formally informed about this.
"If this is the case then this is not surprising for us. The former authorities have not cleared accounts in the last 10 years and have not filed any IT returns. There has been no foreign funding during this period. We are renewing the restoration of accounts and last week we cleared them," Basab Ray, a member of the Academy's trust committee, told IANS.
"The cancellation of licence will not be a major setback because there was no activity in the last 10 years," Ray added.
ISCKON sources claimed they had two registration numbers under FCRA and they had approached the authorities to cancel one of them.
"We had registered from Mayapur and Kolkata. Later we found out that only one was enough so we applied with the FCRA authorities to cancel one. The current cancellation reflects that," claimed ISKCON spokesperson Radharaman Das.